Paul Ricœur’s Conception of the Reform of University Education

Abstract

The article examines the concept of reform of university education by Paul Ricœur. During his tenure as professor at the Sorbonne, the philosopher begins to experience dissatisfaction with the quality of teaching at a leading university in France. Analyzing the problems in the field of higher education, he comes to the following conclusions. In the second half of the 20 th century, the world has entered the era of the cultural revolution. This process consists in the global transformation of the social system and the spiritual life of society, the formation of new ideas about values. In addition, the demographic explosion, significant changes in the field of social stratification, the need of society for qualified specialists have led to a sharp increase in the number of young people wishing to get higher education. In these conditions, there is a need to reform the university education system in accordance with the requirements of the time. Ricœur is developing a project for the reorganization of higher education, the main idea of which was to be the principle of open dialogue in the learning process. According to the philosopher, it was necessary to abandon the outdated interpretation of teaching as a formal translation of the existing body of knowledge from the teacher to passively perceiving information students, to consider teaching not as the assimilation of a system of static truths, but as a creative process of interpreting the material being studied, which presupposes a willingness to discuss and solve emerging problems. Curricula need to be formed in a modular-elective way, taking into account the individual needs of students. Universities should become centers of creativity and scientific innovation. To achieve this goal, it will be necessary to reform universities as educational institutions, making teaching efficient and flexible. Ricœur embarked on his project at the University of Nanterre, which was set up as the vanguard of renewing the higher education system. However, the revolutionary events of 1968 in France led to the collapse of his pedagogical experiment. The philosopher himself explained the reason for his failure by the fact that he built relationships horizontally and underestimated the importance of vertical relationships in management. The author comes to the conclusion that despite Ricœur’s failure during the period of his reform activities at the University of Nanterre, his pedagogical concept is deep and well-grounded. Many of the philosopher’s recommendations are consistent with the set of measures to reform higher education, carried out in France in the late 1960s – early 1970s. Ricœur’s idea remains relevant in the modern era and anticipates some of the ideas of a new model of education in the 21 st century.