RES UNIVERSITAS: THE CASE OF THE UNIVERSITY IN A KNOWLEDGE-BASED SOCIETY

The article addresses the special role of universities in building a knowledge-based society. According to education sociologist Gerard Delanty, the university is a place where knowledge, culture and society interact; it is the producer and transformer of knowledge as science and knowledge as culture. This article, adopting Delanty's perspective, analyses the role of universities in Latvia in forming a knowledge-based society, changes that are taking place in universities, and the role of philosophically oriented disciplines in universities. The author indicates that it is characteristic of modern universities to decrease the role of 'pure' humanities and to integrate philosophy into the research system. The article contains interviews with five associate professors and professors of philosophy from four of the largest institutions of higher education in Latvia.