It is a product of intellectual roaming, of the exploration of new subjects. It is both the result and the producer of the philosophic habit that Cardinal Newman labeled the basic characteristic of the educated person, and philosophy is the theoretical pursuit par excellence. So, if the educational process is philosophical, then the place in which it occurs must be the maker of new ideas. The youth of the students may also play a part in building the shield that preserves the university. Youth has the luxury of ignoring the practical goal and purpose of knowledge.
Youth can be philosophical and can learn the philosophic habit by practice.
They are young enough to hold off for a few crucial years the awful baying of practical concerns. Our regret in finding our older students focused on making it in the world is correspondingly mild. We know that, youth gone, they must take the baying seriously and get on with it. Our hopes for their education are not invested so much in the intellectual treks on which we lead them as in what they have and will experience as adults. We hope that they will catch the philosophic habit by some lucky chance as they run through our courses.