Centaur

The needs of society are no longer fully satisfied by traditional forms of education. It is increasingly difficult to bring together so many objectives, often multidirectional and contradictory, in a single place. Each year, the quantity of knowledge and skills required in the labour market increases, and now universities are trying to incorporate them as much as possible into education programs. Such an approach makes universities attractive for cooperation with commercial organisations, and therefore ensures the university’s own profit.

Now the curriculum is full of subjects vaguely aligned within the same specialty, deceptively promising holistic and quality development. A situation arises where the university is no longer capable of providing students with a specific applied profession, nor is it able to conscientiously ensure the development of the theoretical knowledge base. Schopenhauer once quite rightly called the matter of religious philosophy a centaur – a centaur can also be called an attempt of so sloppy fusion of rough vocational, theoretical and all-round education.

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Active involvement in the educational process

Having entered a university, a freshly minted student must draw up a plan of his studies personally and independently, which must necessarily serve as the basis for one’s own purpose. Active involvement in the educational process is only possible with a real purpose.

The university of the future should be able to implement the idea of supporting people who are willing and able to fully perceive, understand and nurture reality in a creative way. Such qualities can only be formed through the experience of independent thinking and independent paths.

Creative and profound interaction with students

The attitude towards university higher education as almost compulsory prolongation of secondary education turns the university into a kind of guardian-educator of yesterday’s schoolchildren. The essence of mentoring practice inevitably evolves into the simplification of the presentation materials for a wide range of students, instead of being realized in a creative and profound interaction with students who are ready for this.

Like a fast food restaurant

Modern tools like multimedia and distance education are most often used not to improve the quality of education, but to reach a greater number of creditworthy students.

The mass nature of education characterized by reducing the level of education, lack of student pretentiousness and the insatiable desire for money & power profits from the leadership management, makes the university look like a fast food restaurant.

Conjunction of differences

Philosophy, if it is not just an instrument of abstract thinking, becomes an effective way to influence the living world. In this case, if it has the ability to transform the state of mind of mankind, which consists of representatives of all kinds of ways of living, then the habitual type of philosopher turns into a type of synthetic person. After all, he must not only feel, but also practice a real connection with the multi-component world that surrounds him.

There is also no way to find clear images of the desirable forms of this kind of philosophical practice, they can only be created. This is because in each case one person can combine a unique set of experiences and perceptions. The specificity of task is complicated by the simultaneous divided existence of differences and conjunction of differences in one person – all of them are both separate and integral at the same time, and after the intentional unification, they are no longer something from the original.