Das akademische System im 21. Jahrhundert muss sich wandeln. Allerdings: Quo vadis, universitas? Die Reformbemühungen des letzten Jahrzehnts sind ebenso ein Teil des Problems wie die neuen Herausforderungen durch Künstliche Intelligenz, Digitalisierung, demographischen Wandel, Studierfähigkeit der SchülerInnen, Ökonomisierung, Uniformierung, juristische und verwaltungstechnische Regelungen etc.
Um 1800 wurde die Idee der Universität insbesondere von Philosophen entwickelt. Das Heft möchte deswegen unter einer philosophischen Perspektive der Frage nachgehen: Wie lässt sich die Idee einer Universität im 21. Jahrhundert fassen und beschreiben, um Bildungsprozesse zu ermöglichen, die souveräne Forschung, Selbstbildungsfähigkeit in der Lehre, Mündigkeit und Verantwortung für die Gesellschaft gleichermaßen kultivieren? Oder muss eine solche Bildungsidee (wie sie exemplarisch um 1800 gedacht worden ist) für die Universitäten aufgegeben werden?
Ursula Frost
Abstract Since antiquity, enlightened humanism has been developing the project of combining education through science with science measured by education, in cooperation of humanities and sciences. To the extent that this model is abandoned, it is questionable how the ever-increasing responsibility of scientists is to be perceived as a human one. A renewed humanism should set its measure in being-with and a freedom shared with human beings, things and nature. The university as a place of education would have to reflect on and cultivate not dispositive knowledge, but the relationship of the subject matter to the transcendent alterity of a being and living other.
Buy article Dieter Lamping
Abstract Especially in the late 1940s, Karl Jaspers argued in various essays for a ›renewal of the German university‹, that should follow its original ›idea‹. He combined this appeal with a critique of the university as a mass university. In the first part of my article I try to outline his position, in the second part I try to discuss it against the background of our academic situation.
Buy article Johanna Hueck
Abstract The article discusses the relation between science and ›Bildung‹ (education) by specifically inquiring into F. W. J. Schelling’s philosophy. Schelling is one of the main protagonists of the debate led around major German universities in 1800. In an exemplary way, the article consults two of Schelling’s texts: ›Vorlesungen über die Methode des akademischen Studiums‹ and his review on Immanuel Niethammers book on Philanthropism and Humanism. As a result, it becomes clear that Schelling understands science and ›Bildung‹ in a mutually enhancing relation, provided that each of them makes an effort to deal with a living concept of the spirit. Profound ›Bildung‹ of the human is reached through the personalization of ideas. This result will be discussed in the context of the recent trend to call for more practical relevance and output-orientation in research and teaching.
Buy article Salvatore Lavecchia
Abstract The widespread introduction of accreditation procedures contradicts the centrality of freedom in research and teaching which Wilhelm von Humboldt paradigmatically supported. The logic of accreditation propagated during the last decades implies in fact a reversal of Hulmboldt’s perspective: priority is given to standardization and – not necessarily sheer – competition, which shifts the human being into a peripheral position within academic education. With regard to the reductionist anthropology presupposed by accreditation procedures, Humboldt’s Menschenbild manifests a breaking contrastivity. Humboldt in fact intends human beings not as merely biological or psychological subjects, but as spiritual selves capable of a fruitful development with the help of science, whereas science is primarily perceived as spiritual and dialogical activity. This notion of science, which echoes Socrates’ midwifery, could represent a more human alternative to future sceneries in which universities would be exclusively considered as institutions providing services.
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