The crisis of higher education our universities are facing today appears to be a special and peculiar reflection of the crisis of contemporary Western liberal societies. Our societies are increasingly failing to sustain proper social and economic coherence. The rise of the right- and left-wing populism, threatening the value foundations and the social stability of contemporary European societies, appears to be the most striking political consequence of this crisis.
University education, as Hannah Arendt has brilliantly demonstrated – both in her writings and in her personal commitment – first and foremost stands as an invitation to THINKING: University education is not just about higher professional training as such. University education is destined to serve man´s freedom by the teaching of critical thinking.
Hannah Arendt´s understanding of the essential plurality of man, his “worldliness” provides the starting point for a conception of truly democratic politics as the sphere of human exchange in the realm of “in-between” human beings; Politics hence is to be seen as the space of interaction of men – and women – sharing their humanity in diversity.
University education – being up to the challenges of our times – is destined to respond to the crisis of contemporary society by educating the young generation in the spirit demonstrated so vividly by Hannah Arendt. Education does not mean simply fitting with knowledge; it is meant to incept THINKING in order to provide orientation for leading one´s life for the sake of the common good.
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The organizing committee can be contacted via deutschestudien@ehu.lt
Basic reference:
- Arendt, Hannah: The Crisis in Education. In: Hannah Arendt: Between Past and Future. Eight Exercises in Political Thought. Penguin Group: New York, London, 1977, pp. 173-196. First American publication: Partisan Review 25, 1958, Nr. 4, S. 493–512. The text was initially written in German: “Die Krise in der Erziehung” at the occasion of the 70. Birthday of Erwin Loewenson, delivered on 13th May 1958 in Bremen. First German publication: Hannah Arendt: Die Krise in der Erziehung. Angelsachsen-Verlag: Bremen 1958). Text reprint: Hannah Arendt: Zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft. Übungen im politischen Denken I. Ursula Ludz, Piper, München 1994, 2. Aufl.
- Arendt, Hannah: Apologie der Pluralität. Eingeleitet von Matthias Bormuth und mit Erinnerungen von Jerome Kohn. Matthes & Seitz: Berlin 2016 (Initially published in English: Hannah Arendt: Philosophy and Politics. In: Social Research vol. 57, No.1. (Spring 1990).
- Bernstein, Richard J.: Why Read Hannah Arendt Now. Polity Press: Cambridge 2018.