Achieving Academic Excellence: A Self-Regulatory Perspective

Abstract

This chapter considers how individual aspirations and institutional norms contribute to the pursuit of excellence in individuals and, on a broader scale, in social institutions. The idea is merely to acknowledge the ancient ideal made famous by Socrates that the unexamined life is not worth living. If we believe this to be true, as I do, then as individuals who participate in society we have an obligation to consider what sort of ideals we wish to strive toward and what sort of society we hope to foster. This chapter does not attempt to define the ideal individual or society, not out of modesty or lack of imagination—although they play a part—but because many possible ideals are equally worthy of being debated and pursued, and because any answer must be tailored to specific circumstances of particular situations in which ideals confront each other: The devil is always in the details. It is the implications of this perspective that I hope to explore in the chapter.