Rethinking thinking: Modernity’s “other” and the transformation of the university

In this book, Odora Hoppers and Richards consider the following questions: 1) What is thinking?; 2) Why do we need to change the way we understand thinking?; and 3) What constitutes knowledge? The authors argue that there exists a status quo in which western knowledges of the law, economics and sciencethe great knowledges taught by the universityare "hegemonic" tools, promoting an ideological vision of what is in everyone's interests that is largely accepted as common sense. This belief, however, is in direct contradiction of the experiences of the vast majority of peoples. Nevertheless, it continues to prevail; therefore, the authors contend that the world university system that promulgates the dominant worldview is in need of a transformationone that requires "rethinking what universities do" (p. 3).