The Humanist Conception of the University: A Framework for Post-Modern Higher Education

Abstract

European universities were traditionally conceived as united communities of academicians propagating a coherent world-view with regard to the most elevated ideals, and were committed to the maximal development of the human potential of their students. Throughout the modem era these characteristics have been undermined by conceptual, social and economic processes that have intensified over recent post-moder decades (Barett, 1990; Schuller, 1990; Kerr, 1972; Schaffer, 1980). Paradoxically, it is especially during this period, which has seen unprecedented accelerated revolutions in all aspects of human existence, that the need for the universities' cultural and educational role is re-emerging. As a result, many writers on higher education (as different in their conceptual frameworks and aspirations as Allan Bloom (1987), the conservative American philosopher, Roland Barett (1990), vice-chairman of the UK Society for Research into Higher Education, and Federico Mayor (1989), the Director-General of UNEsco) have recently attempted to revitalise those characteristics of the university deemed lost. While some writers on the issue express the desire to return to former curricular structures-such as the 'great books' core curriculum (Bloom, 1987), or that designed along the lines of the medieval studium generale (Weiland, 1989), or at least to approach such structures (Hirsch, 1987; Cronholm, 1989)-recent voices have increasingly been advocating the revitalisation of the cultural and educational vocation of the university while adapting it to the current Zeitgeist. More specifically, these voices, dubbed 'radical', have attempted to formulate a conception of university education based on the post-modernist non-objectivist pluralistic and dynamic view of culture and on the post-modernist concept of the individual as (also) self-creating. Within this view, higher education is presented as assisting and encouraging the infinite process of individual self-creation and the more general process of the creation of cultures by individuals (Feinberg, 1989, 1990; Fritzman, 1990; Kiziltan et al., 1990; Arcilla, 1990; Rorty, 1990). This proposal, while usually presented as a new response to the present cultural condition, in fact resurrects much of the unique humanist concept of the university developed in Germany at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries (Barett, 1988, 1990). I believe that this radical view can be conceptually substantiated and theoretically enriched by a dialogue with the humanist view. This article is intended as the first step towards such a dialogue and consists of the presentation of the humanist view and the demonstration of its relevance for us today. I will start by outlining the five models of the university that have so far 397