2005 Press Releases
Conferring Ceremonies at University College Cork , 12 September 2005
Five hundred and forty one students graduated today (12 September 2005)
from the Faculties of Law and Commerce on the first day of UCC's
week-long Conferring Ceremonies.
The Conferring addresses were given by Professor Fred Powell,
Department of Applied Social Studies, UCC (see below) and Professor
John R. Higgins, Head, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, UCC.
Text of Address by: Professor Fred Powell, Department of Applied Social Studies, UCC.
The Gift of Knowledge
Today is a GREAT Day! I salute you as graduates. There
could be no greater honour bestowed upon a human being. In your
case, the honour was won by hard work and exceptional ability.
That is a wonderful achievement. A light is struck today that
will shine throughout your lives. It is not simply a light of
deserved pride in achievement. But the light of knowledge that
illuminates your world. Your studies have transformed your
understanding of the world in all its complexity and possibility - the
human condition. You stand here today as the hope and future of
our civilisation. Ireland's pride in the best and truest
sense. The degree you will receive symbolises the gift of
knowledge.
I also salute your parents and partners. For them, this is also a
great day. They have loved you and believed in you during these
testing years of achievement. Today is a day of shared
glory. Let your celebrations bring you closer in this moment of
achievement that marks the point when you begin life's journey on your
own. There is a children's story called 'The Giving Tree'.
The tree gives its leaves, its branches and eventually is reduced to a
stump. It still willingly serves as a seat to be rested
upon. This allegory tells us about parental love and
giving. Many parents at this graduation ceremony may feel like
'The Giving Tree'. You have probably been rested upon rather a
lot. But your generosity has not been in vain. Your
children do you proud.
Knowledge is a gift. It is like an extra sense - being able to
see or hear in new ways that change one's life totally. Knowledge
provides the opportunity to be a global citizen able to traverse the
world. This is part of its gift. But knowledge is also a
journey towards inner meaning. The Chinese have a saying 'read
ten thousand books or travel ten thousand miles'. In the world
you are about to enter both possibilities present themselves.
Yours is the generation of globalisation. The world is at your
feet. But the world is also in your minds. When you read or
talk and listen, you now have a capacity to understand far beyond your
ancestors or indeed most inhabitants of this shrinking planet.
Knowledge is a great gift. But a gift to be valued and used
wisely in the service of humankind.
For many the hope of turning knowledge into wealth is the ambition that
they have cherished during their long and arduous years of study.
Wealth creation is vital to the life of the nation. But it has
its pitfalls. You will recall F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The
Great Gatsby, first published in 1926. It describes America
during the 'Roaring Twenties' - the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald's hero
in The Great Gatsby is portrayed as putting all his energies into the
quest for wealth, status and power in, as Scott Fitzgerald presents it,
'the service of a vast, vulgar, meretricious beauty' (his words) that
he characterises as the empty heart of the American dream. The
comparisons with the Celtic Tiger are unmistakeable. Wealth meets
material satisfactions. That is important. But there is a
spiritual side to life. Some satisfy this need through
religion. Others find it in arts, literature and music. For
people with knowledge, active citizenship through politics, civil
society and culture is a way to repay society for
privilege. Professor Robert Putnam of Harvard University
addressed the Government on this issue last week. He warned that
in America family and community life are in decline. As young
leaders in Irish Society, you can make a difference by being socially
engaged. Don't be afraid to volunteer to help your
community. In that way you share the gift of knowledge.
The French philosopher, Michel Foucault, tells us that 'knowledge is
power: Power is knowledge'. I have some reservations about the
Nietschean overtones in this statement. Knowledge is about
intellectual enquiry and understanding. Not about building
'Superman' or 'Superwoman'. But Foucault's is an old theme.
Another philosopher, two and a half thousand years ago, in Ancient
Athens, had similar ideas. His name was Plato. He argued
that the world should be governed by knowledgeable people, which he
called 'Philosopher Kings'. However, Plato also believed that
knowledge must be tempered by four cardinal virtues: Wisdom; Courage;
Temperance; and Justice. Wisdom is acquired with experience, and
the accumulation of knowledge. Courage is a quality we all admire
in a human being, because it represents the mental and moral strength
to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear and difficulty.
As Shakespeare puts it 'but screw your courage to the sticking place,
and we'll not fail'. Temperance, in the Platonic sense, you will
be relieved to hear is not abstinence from alcohol but a more general
virtue of being balanced and restrained in one's opinions - using
reason which is a gift of knowledge. Finally, justice for Plato
equates broadly to what we mean by morality - that quality that
restrains the pursuit of self-interest or desire at the expense of
another. Justice makes people social animals and states
law-abiding.
These Platonic virtues remind us that one can be a good lawyer,
business person, doctor, etc., but not necessarily a good person.
Human virtue makes a person good. A person with values is
anchored in life. Their journey through life will be rewarded by
the ultimate success - the respect of other human beings.
Knowledge is about the search for truth. The underlying purpose
of truth-seeking is the most noble and useful activity of
humankind. In the university the pursuit of truth is underpinned
by academic freedom, which is usually described as the right of each
individual to enjoy the freedom to study, to inquire, to speak their
mind, to communicate their ideas, and to assert the truth as they see
it. This claim to freedom of the mind stretches back to Ancient
Athens. Socrates, who was Plato's teacher, became the embodiment
of knowledge as the quest for truth. Democracy and truth are
interdependent. Socrates is the model academic. Sartorially
challenged, he was the master of argument. Academics like to
argue. You have probably noticed. For Socrates the task of
his life was to convince people not of sin but of ignorance. His
famous Socratic method of argument tested the claims of those who
thought they knew something. Socrates' wisdom lay in his
appreciation of the limits of his own knowledge. He claimed to
know nothing - 'Socratic irony'.
Yet he managed to shake the roots of prevailing beliefs and
institutions to their foundations. At seventy he was put on trial
on charges of disbelieving in the gods of the city, of introducing new
deities and of corrupting the youth. He stood by his principles
and was sentenced to death. Socrates has been immortalised for
his defence of truth. His life remains an inspiration because he
put the defence of truth above all else, including the preservation of
his own life. Socrates relentless pursuit of the truth reminds us
that the acquisition of knowledge takes place in a moral and political
context. Truth is often multi-sided. Tolerance in
truth-seeking is an essential pre-requisite for knowledge, which is
first and last a humanistic pursuit.
But Socratic Method also reminds us that knowledge is about
enquiry. This is its practical side. Socrates is remembered
by academics as the Patron Saint of Academic Freedom. But his
method may be his more lasting legacy. Whether you are a lawyer,
doctor or businessperson, skill in enquiry is fundamental, i.e. the
capacity to ask the right questions. That makes knowledge highly
practical. Without that skill of enquiry, the world will
stop. Science can't move forward. Justice cannot be
administered. The sick cannot be treated. The wheels of
commerce will not turn. The Socratic method of disinterested
enquiry is the cornerstone of Western thought and those practices: law,
medicine, commerce, etc., that underpin our civilisation. Don't
ever let anybody persuade you that the learning you gained at
university isn't practical. Nothing could be more practical than
knowledge based on enquiry. It is the essence of human
rationality that has built the world.
The gift of knowledge, which we are celebrating today, will remain with
you forever. Knowledge is eternal. It is not a commodity
that will perish. Knowledge is for life. Hopefully, you
will continue to pursue knowledge throughout your lives.
Knowledge is about development - personal development. Its
excitement illuminates life, always revealing something new. You
have learnt much from your studies, not simply the rudiments of your
discipline. But knowledge of self. Modern life is often
defined as a project of the self. Self-actualisation fulfils the
highest human needs. Self-discovery is the product of
knowledge. May your knowledge make you happy and fulfilled.
I would like to end with a short extract from a poem by D.H. Lawrence. It's called 'Work':
There is no point in work
unless it absorbs you
like an absorbing game.
If it doesn't absorb you
if it's never any fun
don't do it.
When a man goes out into his work
he is alive like a tree in spring,
he is living, not merely working.
112MMcS
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