The Principle of the Autonomy of the University as Decentered Democratic Autonomy: Historical and Philosophical Backgrounds of the Ethical and Political Evolution of this Concept

Abstract

This article begins with the analysis of some of the main structural aspects of the crisis of the Latin American university; crisis caused by the increasing processes of its neoliberalization and by the premise according to which if the practice of the university´s autonomy is the only way we can face neoliberalism, the slippery aspect of the concept would need to be semantically reconfigured. Then, the article presents a broad analysis of the origin, and historical and philosophical development of the idea of autonomy. Afterwards, the text analyzes the way in which such a concept was historically established by the classic German thinkers. To conclude the article presents the possible challenges of the public university, as a democratically autonomous and de-centered university, facing the possibility of selfinstitutionalizing a new project of society, both at the regional and national level.