Dr Neville Buch
Abstract
The assertion that university academics are rendered redundant by the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution reflects a deeper sociological crisis: the reduction of human potential to “measurable utility” and the subsequent “denoetization” of the lifeworld. This essay examines this tension through the lens of Dr. Neville Buch’s Matrix of Sociology, arguing that academics only become redundant when higher education is stripped of its role in fostering Scholarship and the archetype of the Person. Drawing on Bernard Stiegler’s critique of proletarianization and Jürgen Habermas’s warnings regarding Instrumental-Rationality, the analysis suggests that the true value of the university lies in its capacity as a “long circuit” of individuation that protects human judgment against automated behavioural control. If society continues to “dumb down” by prioritizing vocational fitness over deep intellectual inquiry, it risks a state of “symbolic misery” where human authorship is lost to algorithmic calculation.
——————————————————————————–
https://www.academia.edu/165380994/University_Academics_The_Nature_and_Future
The Crisis of Redundancy: Scholarship vs. Automated Calculation
The belief that the AI revolution has made university academics obsolete stems from a misunderstanding of the “quasi-causality” between the human and the technical object. When technology is viewed solely as a replacement for human cognition rather than an extension of it, the university is reduced to a factory for “Job-Ready” outcomes. In this framework, academics indeed appear to be making themselves redundant by focusing on the externalization of data rather than the internal cultivation of wisdom.
I. Proletarianization and the Loss of Noetic Diversity
Bernard Stiegler defines proletarianization not as a class relation, but as the universal loss of knowledge—specifically savoir-faire (how to do), savoir-vivre (how to live), and theoretical knowledge. The delegation of judgment to algorithms represents the “mechanical liquidation of discernment,” which reduces students and academics alike to “puny human nodes” in a hegemonic network. This process destroys “noodiversity” (the diversity of knowledge), as complex intellectual fields are stripped away in favour of quantifiable and extractable data sets. When society devalues fields like philosophy, history, and sociology, it removes the conceptual tools necessary for individuals to understand their own historical contingency.
II. The “Job Ready” Fallacy and Instrumental-Rationality
The current trend toward stripping universities of diverse fields of learning is driven by a model of Instrumental-Rationality (Zweckrational). Drawing on Jürgen Habermas, the Buch Matrix warns that modern governance often approximates a model of behavioural control steered by external stimuli rather than internal norms. neoliberal policies like the “Job Ready” scheme reduce the human being to mere “human capital,” valuing education only for its instrumental profit. As Nel Noddings argues, the spirit of the liberal arts is undermined when specialized tracks emphasize economic utility over holistic flourishing.
III. The University as a “Long Circuit” of Individuation
In the Matrix of Sociology, the University (Row 4) is the institutional focus dedicated to Scholarship and the development of the “inward man”. This order relies on the Performance of Devotio Moderna and the Function of Writing to act as “long circuits” of individuation. These circuits are essential because they require the active, silent dialogue of thinking—what Hannah Arendt identifies as the prerequisite for conscience and judgment. Unlike AI, which lacks a “moral sense” and the capacity for communal deliberation, the academic scholar facilitates the process of “grammatization”—the externalization of thought into stable forms that allow for shared meaning and reflection.
IV. Reclaiming Human Authorship
The ultimate value of academics is found in their role as “panseurs”—those who reinvent thinking (penser) as caring (panser). By practicing “crap detecting,” academics help society filter out the “institutional bullshit” and manufactured myths used to justify elite domination. This process is vital for the restoration of Human Authorship, ensuring that the “who” (the human being) remains the proactive operator of the “what” (the technical and social systems).
Conclusion
University academics are only redundant if the university is viewed as a data repository. However, if the university is understood as a site for noodiversity and the cultivation of the Person archetype, the academic remains an essential safeguard against “artificial stupidity”. The “dumbing-down” of society by stripping away diverse fields of learning is a symptom of Historical Forgetfulness. To save the university and ensure Aristotelian flourishing, society must value academics not for their technical output, but for their ability to “uncoil” the circles of regression and empower individuals to be the authors of their own social existence.
If society continues to dumb-down itself by stripping down fields of learning out of the paid universities, then the value is lost.
——————————————————————————–
Dynamic of Cognition (DoC) Table: Academic Value in the AI Era
| DoC Component | Regression (The Obsolete Academic) | Humanistic Ascent (The Essential Scholar) | Philosophical Rationale |
| Prejudice (Centre) | Simplistic Literalism: Believing AI replaces all knowledge. | Reflective Self-Criticism: Questioning the “obvious” of technical automation. | Moves from habit to logic-based social choices. |
| Attitudes (Thinking) | Mechanical Techné: Teaching as data delivery or behavioural control. | Panser (Thinking as Caring): Tending to social wounds with empathy and rigor. | Replaces strategic domination with communicative action. |
| Typologies of Value | Measurable Utility: Valuing academics solely for “Job Ready” outcomes. | Holistic Flourishing: Affirming the complexity of the “inward man”. | Education as an “intermittent passage to noetic action”. |
| Exclusion (Sensation) | Historical Forgetfulness: Forgetting the human construction of institutions. | Crap Detecting: Systematically filtering out institutional myths. | Reveals social institutions as historically contingent. |
| Inclusion (Intuition) | Symbolic Misery: Loss of agency to automated behavioural control. | Human Authorship: Becoming the proactive author of one’s own narrative. | Restores the capacity for “Natality” and new beginnings. |
——————————————————————————–
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition. University of Chicago Press.
Arendt, H. (1977). The life of the mind (M. McCarthy, Ed.). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Berlin, I. (1979). Concepts and categories: Philosophical essays (H. Hardy, Ed.). Pimlico.
Buch, N. (2025). The dynamic of cognition. Academia.edu.
Buch, N. (2026). A matrix of sociology. Management Institute for Contributory Economy.
Collins, R. (1998). The sociology of philosophies: A global theory of intellectual change. Harvard University Press.
Habermas, J. (1979). Communication and the evolution of society (T. McCarthy, Trans.). Beacon Press.
Lonergan, B. J. F. (1962). Regis college lectures: Operations, the subject, objects, method (R. C. Croken & R. M. Doran, Eds.). University of Toronto Press.
Noddings, N. (2013). Renewing the spirit of the liberal arts. The Journal of General Education, 62(2–3), 77–83.
Stiegler, B. (1998). Technics and time, 1: The fault of Epimetheus (R. Beardsworth & G. Collins, Trans.). Stanford University Press.
Stiegler, B. (2014). Symbolic misery, 1: The hyperindustrial epoch (B. Norman, Trans.). Polity Press.
Stiegler, B. (2021). The immense regression (D. Ross, Trans.). Polity Press.
Turner, B. (2023). Returning to judgment: Bernard Stiegler and continental political theory. SUNY Press.
Werthner, H., et al. (Eds.). (2024). Introduction to digital humanism. Springer.
Williams, B. (1985). Ethics and the limits of philosophy. Harvard University Press.
******
Featured Image: The University of Queensland
Neville Buch
Latest posts by Neville Buch (see all)
- Death in Life and Life in Death: Affective, Intellectual, and Ontological Dimensions of Human Mortality – October 2, 2026
- Psychological Symbol Cards – October 2, 2026
- The Washington Post Impact Report and American Studies – October 1, 2026