What does it mean to orient oneself in
thinking?
The new old crisis of the university from a continental
perspective.
Achim D.
Abstract:
“Orientation”
is the new/old task of a free university. Whereas, the American
university follows the tutorial concept of
“Was heißt, sich im Denken zu orientiren?” (Kant WDO: 131; Richardson: 87 ”What means, to orient
one’s self in thinking?“). To understand the current global crisis of the
university, it is necessary to orient oneself where it
all started in the early 12th century: the new old crisis of the university has
to include a view from a continental perspective.
What
does it mean to orient oneself in thinking? This was the question Kant
answered by pointing to one of the essential functions of higher education; the
capacity to help us to orient ourselves in a more and more complex
reality. Before him, Moses Mendelssohn had already pointed out that
orientation is necessary for the condition of enlightenment (Mendelsohn). Orientation allows us to place knowledge,
and to find a way to autonomy.
Kant’s successor at
Königsberg addressed the need for orientation in his philosophical
dictionary: “Orientiren (sich) heißt eigentlich den Orient oder den Ort
im Horizonte suchen, wo die Sonne zur Zeit der Tag- und Nachtgleiche aufgeht,
wodurch dann auch die übrigen Weltgegenden leicht bestimmbar sind” (Krug; Orth:
31). (“To orient oneself means to find the orient or place on the horizon
where the sun rises at the time of the solstice, hence, we can determine the other
world regions.”)
This
definition of orientation can be interpreted allegorically. Knowledge of
the place and time allows finding the way. Applied to universities, it
can be said that knowledge as produced by institutions of higher learning allows
orientation. It reaches from the determination of the solstice by ancient
civilizations to the more and more refined measurements of time. Its
application, be it through a sun dial, a water clock, or more modern forms of
time measurements, is linked to non-applied academic research about the nature
of time. Applications such as the integration of a pendulum in watch
making demonstrate that fundamental research can lead to, at first unintended,
applications. It is a necessary precondition for commercial orientation.
The
direct benefit of orientation fell back on society as a whole, not on the
providers of knowledge. In exchange, those in charge of the finding and
teaching of knowledge gained academic freedom, respect by society, and autonomy.
Such autonomy, not only for a small elite, but also
for society as such, is necessary. It inspired Humboldt’s attempt to reform the state via a
fundamental reform of the university (Natale: 86): “Der Gang der
Wissenschaft ist offenbar auf einer Universität, wo (sie) immerfort in einer
großen Menge und zwar kräftiger, rüstiger jugendlicher Köpfe herumgewühlt wird,
rascher und lebendiger” (Humboldt: 257). (“At a university, which
constantly rummages through a large number of strong, able bodied youthful heads,
the progress of science is faster and more lively.”)
The
problem of the Germanic university is that it has a tendency to rely on old
structures, which has led to less innovation and more stasis. In
Its roots are documented in Fichte’s attempts at a
new foundation in the “Wissenschaftslehre” which is
seen as an alternative to the purely traditional, repetitive form of
learning. Learning is thereby seen as productive, thus bridging the gap
between theory and practice deplored in the rift between universities and
universities of applied sciences. Schelling
follows the movement with his “Vorlesungen über die Methode des akademischen Studiums” in 1802:
studies are to form an organic whole of knowledge and application.
Friedrich Schleiermacher and H. Steffens
(“Über die Idee der Universität,”1809) complete the revised paradigm of the
German university (Spranger). Wilhelm von
Humboldt coins its applied form in his drafts for educational reform (Humboldt
1920: 279). In 1802, Humboldt argued against the old form of specialized
training, which he encountered in the French system of higher education:
“Sie ertöteten durch die enge ihres Gesichtskreises jeden wissenschaftlichen Geist und waren schließlich nichts anderes als Schulen
der empirischen Praxis” (Spranger: 200 f., “Through the narrowness of its horizon
they eliminated all forms of scientific spirit and became nothing else but
schools of empirical practice.”)
Humboldt and his foundation of the free university in
There
is a fundamental difference between the old idea of the university as
institution of higher learning and its counterpart, the university
of applied sciences. In the Austro-Germanic educational system,
this difference is clearly formulated as a different approach to praxis and
research (Mische: 16 f.). The intended outcome
of the revised mission statements for universities and universities of applied
sciences was to allow for competition among universities, both within each category
and between university systems. “Gleichwertigkeit,”
equivalence, was the goal formulated by a large political majority. The
intended short-term outcome was to regulate the competition in such a way that
a specific flaw of the Germanic university, the long duration of studies, could
be addressed. The university of applied sciences
was supposed to compete with the purely theoretical knowledge of long standing,
offered by the traditional universities. The focus on organized,
well-structured studies with an intended outcome allowed these to shorten while
still allowing applied universities to remain within the realm of science. (The
untranslatable Germanic word used in this context is “Wissenschaftlichkeit”
which applies to the natural and the “humanistic” sciences, the humanities,
alike.)
Universal comparisons are necessary to ensure the compatibility of
knowledge. For this purpose, the originally absolute independence of the
university (see the title, “Freie Univerität”
in
Both
forms of universities are supposed to prepare the student for professional life.
Traditional universities focus on the teaching of methods. For the
universities of applied sciences however, the mission is reduced to the
application of knowledge; thus, professors for the latter category will have to
have demonstrated skills beyond the academic realm in at least five years of
praxis and to have shown the capacity to transfer academic knowledge to
successful application (Mische: 17).
The
traditional condition of tenure at a Germanic traditional university is still
the habilitation, a form of second doctorate, which
adds an average of five more years to the already lengthy studies of most
applicants for continued employment. Since the goal of applicability
gained weight, and when it became obvious that the teaching skills and innovative
tendencies of younger faculty could not be developed in the traditionally rigid
system, so called “junior professorships” were introduced. In principle,
they will adapt the Germanic system to
The
ability to react quickly to the job market, the ability to form alliances, and
the internationalisation of their curriculum have shown that in many respects
the universities of applied sciences have sharpened their profile to such a
degree that they are the clear winners of the competition. In a way, the
European applied universities are following the example of the old
Since
nobody will accuse the Royal Society of a lack of scientific rigor and
standard, it can be seen that the reforms of the continental university systems
are a late adaptation of old structures to new realities, with applicability
included in the mission of fundamental research. Jean Jacques Rousseau
addressed the problem in his Second Discourse on the Origins of Inequality Among Men. The sciences are reproached for not
having fostered the benefit of humanity but only that of the privileged
few. However, today’s reforms of the continental university system, with
the introduction of bachelor degrees and a separation of graduate and
undergraduate studies, are more interested in the applicability of knowledge
and the reduction of cost than in the fostering of a link between research and
application. As in all Platonic cases, the Germanic copy is even less
desirable than the
Students of universities of applied sciences are winners and losers of the
competition between the university systems. At first highly employable
graduates receive no systematic overview beyond the limits of their original
field of studies. They lack time and space to gain such knowledge.
The structure of their studies is in the hands of others; they remain within a
school-like structure. As tradeoff for the loss
of freedom and choice, they gain fast access to the job market. Their
employability is far superior to the average applicant from traditional mass
universities. In principle, their professors stand with both legs in a
practical life that prepares the students well. They spend their time
primarily in teaching and not in research; the student being the sole purpose
of such institutions, and the application of knowledge
dominates all other aspects of academic life. From a career oriented
point of view, one could argue that such focused studies are a full success
since even the classical continental universities are unable to offer the
alternative: traditional liberal arts degrees as Studium
Generale, based since 12th century
It
can be argued that our complex reality needs more broadly spread knowledge, and
that the half-life of the claimed applicability is declining: to teach skills
successfully does not mean that the student will be able to develop the
necessary transfer skills, and the ‘anthropological premise’ of all studies,
the view of the whole and the Kantian hope for an exit from self inflicted
tutelage, is pushed to the background. Plato and Aristotle agreed on the
necessity to gain knowledge in such a way that we are able to see the “holon” (Wirth: 105), the whole: In the above quoted
text on the need for orientation, Kant claims that abstract, not applied, “Denken” (“Thinking”) is necessary to combine
logically. The freedom to think becomes the last probing stone of truth
(Kant WDO: 146; Richardson: 407 “The chief touchstone of truth of one’s self”).
Since
the times of the medieval university, it was not clear whether the whole or the
parts are more important, and the quarrel of the Universals is revived today in
the competition between universities and universities of applied science.
What is beyond debate is the complexity of systems, which the university of applied science, and more and more, the
university as such, have declined the responsibility to address. Instead,
that study has been relegated to specialized fields such as system theory or
cybernetics.
The
goal of the university, in its newly revised mission, has to become or remain
to understand relationships: “die Bedingtheit begreifen lernen” (to understand
conditionality). All knowledge is mediated, conditioned by words,
concepts, myths (Bösch). In this sense, we have
to address the same problem Aristotle and Plato faced: the belief
in easy applications, the “for sale” sign on knowledge, are not new:
they have threatened education since sophistry became a trade, not an art.
However, the trademark university in its privatised, for profit shape as
mentioned by Natale is not the true threat for the
Germanic or Continental university: here, the “for free” (Joffe)
public support for the public institutions of higher learning has so far
prevented the success of institutions such as the University of Phoenix (Natale: 39 ff). However, in anticipation to the same
needs as addressed by commercial institutions such as the said
Since
the commercial success of such institutions and educational systems in the
Lack
of orientation by those formed in such a system is the answer to this
rhetorical question, since education is not a good like all the others.
Unlike commercial commodities, such as grain, it is the one grain that stands
out of the mass that yields the hidden value: qualitative measurements, and
systems of mass production of knowledge at lower cost, will miss the chance to
find this grain. In a way, the commercial streamlining of the
output-oriented modern university in all its forms threatens our intellectual
freedom more than direct censorship of freedom of speech would have threatened
a democracy: such a commercial entity leaves no space for the elaboration of
new answers, and it will not be possible to find a forum for the discussion of
such answers.
We
also have to consider classical warning voices against all trends of focused
output measured study: if an educational system fails, Plato’s Republic (VIII)
shows how tyrannis can develop out of a
democracy that has failed to educate its elites and population. Karl Jasper saw some of the same signs
Natale calls “The corporate eclipse of the university”: “Durch die
Ausbildung der Arbeitskräfte für die Zwecke der in ganz ziellose, immer nur an
partikulare Zwecke gebundenen technischen Massengeschäft wird der Aufgabe der
Universität nicht genug getan” (Jaspers). (“The education of
workers for particular purposes to satisfy specific needs of technological mass
production does not fulfil the original task of the university.”)
The
limitation of the scope of the university to such short-term goals, which
today’s corporatization demands, eliminates the
search for non-tangible long-term goals. “Mit der Universität sinken Gesellschaft und
Staat ab“ (Jaspers, Hoffacker). (“Society and state fall with the
university.”)
Society and the university are linked: without universal scope of its mission,
the institution is reduced to a corporate entity like all the others.
However, corporate goals are short term, quantitative goals, which are measured
by financial outcome. The goals of a university can be reduced to such
corporate goals with streamlined, more efficient corporate structures.
However, the university will then have to loose one essential part of its
mission for society: to provide meaning, to search for meaning, and to define
the guidelines for society. The essence of its mission is not the
teaching of survival skills alone. Only in the framework of a free
academic institution can we expect to gain orientation in more than the literal
sense. The teaching of skills alone outdates quickly. It does not
live up to the expectations of the new clients, industry (interested in a skilled
workforce) and students (interested in stable, well numerated
employment). The sense and meaning giving capacity of a free,
independent, not financially restrained university is a condition for the
further development of society: it is not astonishing to see that the German
university through its students was the father of the first democratic
movements in
To
find a way out of this dead end scenario, universities have to play a dominant
role: Orientation is only possible if the universities can provide more
than a belief that “anything goes.” Natale calls this
current activity “bobbing aimlessly in a sea of cultural relativism in which it
seems that anything can count as knowledge” (Natale:
29). A “one fits all” educational answer cannot be found. The
challenge to be addressed after elitist education is mass education. Corporatisation as the current trend can offer
commercialised, partially good results. It is
natural that large organizations offer their own, corporate forms of carrier
management. Only when this form of qualification starts to threaten and
replace the non-for-profit forms of education is society as such in danger (Luhmann).
To
help future generations of students to “orient themselves” in a more and more
diverse reality, certain ground rules for general education have to be reintroduced
in all forms of higher learning: a core, not in the sense of a strictly defined
body of knowledge, but in the sense of a skill transcending form of classical,
root oriented “Bildung.” Such a form of
education in the own tradition has to be complemented by the study of other
traditions, in other languages, which will allow an objective view of the own
background, and a conversation beyond the own background. In the latter
respect, the Continental universities are able to show a growing proficiency in
foreign languages, and are well ahead of their
Further, such a “public interest”curriculum would
have to make space a moral education of students: a modern society without communally
shared and reflected values cannot expect its members to bear responsibility
beyond their own immediate interests.
“Aufklärung in einzelnen Subjekten durch Erziehung zu gründen,
ist also garleicht, man muß nur früh
anfangen, die jungen Köpfe an diese Reflexion zu gewöhnen“ (Kant WDO:
146).“To found enlightenment in single subjects by education is therefore very
easy; one has nothing to do but do begin early to accustom young understanding
to this reflection” (
As a
response to the “customized approach to education,” (Natale:
42) that is offered by corporate for profit educational models, the financial
balance has to be tilted in the direction of non-for profit institutions, be
they state sponsored or private (Such as the Jesuit insitutions
of higher learning in Germany which are only co-financed up to 18 percent [Hochschule für Philosophie München] by public
sources). For the sake of sound finances, in view of the need for
widespread affordable access to education in the 21st century, the tuition
question has to be addressed: it is fundamentally unfair to allow all students
to study without contribution to the cost of studies. The current no or
low tuition model supports the strongest in studies and research, without the
necessary redistribution of resources to support the weaker parts of the
system. The old tutorial system of the British flagship institutions is
equally unaffordable and unfair, since it limits the best instruction to a
small minority. Even land grants cannot support mass education, and
continental universities lack endowments of any form.
However, the “good deal” offered to society by students from public
institutions has its price. Supplementing the tuition to be raised from
those who can afford it, the state will have to finance the difference to the
cost of private education, thus offering the incentives for the non-job related
training in values, meaning and orientation. The classical liberal arts
education in public institutions has to be revived with the help of public
funding, yielding a long-term benefit to society as a whole. For this
purpose, it will also be necessary to further include all teaching faculty in
the general mission of the university, thus offering a valid alternative to corporate,
for profit models of education. This faculty-involvement in the changes
of society made the German universities of the 19th century to the engine of
societal change. Through the ‘Göttingen Five’,
it also provided a forum for democratic reform or resistance to tyranny.
Such
an alternative to vocational training cannot be solely based on the radical
liberal arts concept as presented by Bishop Newman and others (Natale: 88). “Vocational” training cannot be entirely
dismissed from a modern university: the mediated form of knowledge which
removes us further and further from the culture of scripture alone demands
more training in vocational skills than offered by classical grammar or
high schools. The use of body extending devices such as computers is
necessary, and requires further training than penmanship. Those Germanic
universities that have not been willing to accept this necessity of modern
academia will remain the losers of the international competition for the
best educational system. Less and less foreign students are enrolled in
German universities. However, the strategic alliances forged to keep up
with technological change are a dangerous first step in the direction of corporatization of a genuinely not-for-profit field.
Again, a balance is needed, with state funding for value education, fundamental
research and liberal arts education, supplemented with focused financing of
specific projects (“Drittmittelforschung”) and
tuition.
Specialization and relevance of studies play a legitimate role in the choice of
future careers (Natale: 96 f). However, a
general curriculum that includes cultural literacy does not contradict
vocational requirements of future employers. It is one of the major flaws
of the European university system that it prepares its students badly for life
after academia, and that the students graduate at an advanced age which makes
it difficult to include them in corporate structures. The competition
with the more flexible universities of applied sciences will allow to sharpen both profiles. However, a general
re-orientation, away from the current, financially tempting trend of corporatisation is needed.
To
act, all agents have to have a minimum of knowledge of their actions.
Without any contact with “real” life beyond academia, such orientation will be
impossible. Orientation is always orientation about orientation.
Orientation is determined by previous orientation, which means that, in the
sense of Kant’s work cited above, we can only orient ourself
if we are able to determine our horizon. For this successful application
of knowledge, it is necessary to master the media: what we need is further
media literacy. Lack of orientation, as deplored widely in society,
cannot be overcome by vocational training alone. Liberal arts training that allows such orientation complements
application of knowledge: it is its precondition, if the skills have to be
updated at a later point in life. Lifelong learning is only successful if
the foundations are solid: quantitative and qualitative knowledge has to be
conveyed in a value-building environment. These goals of society
transcend corporate needs and corporate mission.
They
form the context, in which a healthy corporate environment can grow.
Without direction, skills cannot be applied. The finding and defining of
meaning oscillates between the satisfaction of needs (applied science,
vocational training) and the desire to find meaning (Orth:
21 ff.). Even the sensualist Abbé de Condillac is aware that there is more to experience than
senses alone: Economy is seen as the science of needs. Such needs can
only be determined with a view beyond the scope of the immediate
application. Philosophy, in the sense of the old “philosophicum,”
can reconciliate theoria
and praxis. It has to help to orient the orientation, to find direction,
to define standpoints, and to develop alternatives.
“Es wird aber dieser Ausdruck auf das Gebiet der
Erkenntniß übertragen, und da heißt sich orientieren soviel als sich auf jenem
Gebiete zurecht finden, und zwar dadurch, daß man die Gesetze der Erkenntniß
aufsucht. Da nun dieß bloß durch Philosophieren möglich ist, so ist die
Philosophie gleichsam die Orientierungs-Wissenschaft in Bezug auf alle übrige
Wissenschaften. Soll sie aber dieß sein, so muß sie freilich vorher ihren
eigenen Orient oder Aufgangspunct gefunden haben.
It is
indeed questionable if philosophy has found its own standpoint.
However, it can depict alternative ways of seeing, without judging. That
these alternatives can be evaluated as corporate planning makes them
applicable, yet they are not part of corporate planning. They are the
condition of the development of future applications.
To
orient oneself means to find one’s place, but also to
be able, figuratively, to know. Curriculae that
help orientate allow preparing the necessary choices in a society where
compromise has informed consent as a precondition. It further means that
we are orientating ourselves in different dimensions, in different
cultural fields. We can define goals only if we are able to bridge
the gap between theory and praxis. Disorientation, a lack of knowledge or
a lack of acceptance of common sense, can be mediated via liberal arts
education (Lübbe, Orth:
30). The danger of purely applied education and purely vocational
training is that it provides the illusion of orientation, whereas it only
offers an unreflected standpoint. Training does
not prepare for change. In the platonic
sense, it is not an art. Since change occurs faster than ever, higher
education has to offer the necessary resting place for fundamental
reflection that prepares for faster adaptation in the future. Time
is of the essence and the reflective capacity, the look back in order to find
the way, is in danger. Kant: "To orientate oneself,
in the proper sense of the word, means to use a given direction -- and we
divide the horizon into four of these -- in order to find the others, and in
particular that of sunrise." (Reiss 238, AA VIII 134) Orientation
needs knowledge here and now, but also a sense of direction.
Kant is aware of this problem:
“Ein Zeitalter aber aufzuklären, ist sehr langwierig.” (Reiss:
249 "To enlighten an era, however, is a very protracted process;"
The solution for education
has to be a structure that allows both the applied and the traditional
university structure to provide the necessary space and time to find the
way. In a purely corporate educational environment, this will not be
achievable. In a short-term election based state run system, this will
equally be impossible. As Steffens found, the state and science have
fundamentally different interests. So do
corporate entities. Only society has the
right and duty to define its goals by balancing the present and future
interests of all. A balance between all the parts is needed to define the
new, old, re-oriented university. Re-orientation means that not all can
do everything at the same time: redefinition of mission and specific “niche”
service to society that allows positioning all the players (Natale:
208). If society defines itself as a marketplace, it has also to present
itself in terms of the marketplace. A
re-oriented university will have no problem presenting its long-term achievements
and will demonstrate potential for such achievements. Yet we cannot
assess them with the same short-term quantitative tools we use in
economics. Some symbols transcend their prize. A flag has little or
no commercial value, and yet it is symbol for all values of a society or
group. Universities are flagships of value finding and symbols of
orientation in a disoriented time. They are society’s only tools to
master the mediated, media-driven information age. The defence
of the salient place of the university as universitas
magistrorum et scholarium was possible through independence from state
and church from the 13th century. Today it needs to guard its independence from
commercial and immediate needs to remain the orienting institution of society. The
university needs its autonomy to achieve its goal with knowledge: “denn über Gelehrte
als solche
können nur Gelehrte urtheilen" (“since
only genuine scholars can judge about scholars.” A VII, 17, The Contest of the Faculties (CF),
introduction, not translated). Finally, orientation has to be disinterested, neutral
and knowledgeable, as Kant claimed: “Rational inquiry and moral conduct can be
practised properly only in a society governed according to principles of
politics based on the idea of freedom." (Reiss: 236)
Bibliography