The authority of collegiality: The history of university faculty and the dialectic in the recognition of higher knowledge

University faculty originally defined themselves by the use of dialectic on theological doctrines which created a higher knowledge which was more than memorization. This dialectic on doctrine was first discernible in the Nominalist controversy when Roscellinus formulated a null hypothesis to the conventional knowledge of the late 11th century.; An example from the life of Abelard in 1113 A.D., verified the crude existence of standards in this definition of a higher education faculty. Abelard applied the dialectic to the Book of Ezekiel. He was expelled from lectureship in scriptural theology because he had not incepted in it or performed the necessary initial master's lecture before his former masters for their recognition of his higher knowledge.; This recognition of higher knowledge by faculty is their comprehensive activity. This is historically demonstrated again in the 17th century with science. As evidenced in university curricula, scientific higher knowledge was not recognized by university faculty until the 19th century.; Thus, these three events established and defined university faculty as the dialectic which comprehensively recognizes and possesses higher knowledge.; As possessors of higher knowledge, university faculty developed activities of recognition with knowledge. These activities can be grouped into categories of higher knowledge and are presented and explained in a diagram. A brief analysis of these activities demonstrates the presence of the historical linkage of higher knowledge, dialectic and recognition. Contrary to popular opinion, over 85% of faculty activities recognize higher knowledge. All of these are dialectical or collegial, that is, performed with another or dependent on another's recognition.; The comprehensive activity in all the approaches is the recognition of higher knowledge by university faculty. Even the most individual, creative activity of higher knowledge is dependent on recognition from faculty or students. For faculty, this activity of recognition is authority. Authority is the right to make decisions which have binding consequences on others, e.g. Abelard and university curricula.; Because the recognition of higher knowledge defines the comprehensive activity of university faculty, because this activity is a dialectic, i.e. collegial, and because this recognition is an authority, therefore authority can only be exercised collegially. Conversely, the essential, observable, and describable (measurable) substance of collegiality is the authority of higher knowledge as demonstrated in faculty activities of recognition of knowledge.