The story of how the sciences began to understand themselves as independent fields of research st... more The story of how the sciences began to understand themselves as independent fields of research starts by detaching them from philosophy. The identity of the science in question will then further develop as it writes its own history. Higher education studies is, in such reflections, understood as a relatively new field that has its beginnings in the 1970s in questions of psychology, sociology and educational studies. Recent discussions have pointed out that there is an identity crisis going on within this field. This study returns to the old tradition of how a science forms its identity with the help of philosophy. The study returns to the influential formulations of Aristotle. Olaf Pedersen writes in his book on the history of universities that "many of our present difficulties, on closer inspection, appear to have been built into the system right from the beginning". Our aim is not primarily to study what Aristotle said about higher education but instead to understand our present views and problems better. Recent discussion has pointed out that "[t]he themes addressed in higher education research have tended to be influenced by relatively short-term institutional, national and supranational concerns, debates and policies about higher education" (Brennan et al., 2008, 5). Although the importance of historical perspectives has been noted in discussions on the research agenda of higher education studies (Brennan et al., 2008), actual reflections on the history of the field tend to cover only a few decades (Neave, 1985; Brennan and Teichler, 2008; cf. Tight, 2003). This time scale seems natural since higher education research started as late as in the early 1970s as an independent field of its own. Nevertheless, one can also tell a longer version of the history of higher education research. Lately, it has been pointed out by many authors and from different point of view that there is an identity crisis in higher education and higher education research (Albert
Fernando Floresin ja Terry Winogradin Understanding Computers and Cognition poikkeaa perinteisist... more Fernando Floresin ja Terry Winogradin Understanding Computers and Cognition poikkeaa perinteisista ohjelmoinnin lahtokohtien pohdinnoista. Teoksessa asetetaan syrjaan lahtokohta, jota tekijat kutsuvat rationalistiseksi perinteeksi, ja syvennytaan sen sijaan fenomenologiaan. Keskeinen tekija tassa siirtymassa on representaationhypoteesin hylkaaminen. Kirjoittajat nojaavat lahinna Martin Heideggerin, Hans-Georg Gadamerin ja Humberto Maturanan tuotantoon, mutta tassa artikkelissa lahden liikkeelle Edmund Husserlin fenomenologisesta reduktiosta. Tulkitsen Floresin suorittaneen reduktion hanen paatyessaan hylkaamaan representaatiot.
The roots of teaching at a university level extends all the way to antiquity. Lecturing, that is ... more The roots of teaching at a university level extends all the way to antiquity. Lecturing, that is the way of teaching where the professor speaks and the students listen, is still a popular method, even though nowadays it is difficult to justify it pedagogically. Lecturing scarcely supports independent and active learning. In order to find arguments for lecturing as a teaching method in higher education, we need to go back all the way to Aristotle. On the other hand, the legacy of antiquity has also aimed for other kinds of learning than passive listening, from Plato on. For instance, in the Socratic tradition the professor does not distribute his or her knowledge, but rather assists the students to learn by themselves. Thus, we have inherited both good and bad practices from antiquity. By recollecting the origins of our tradition, we may comprehend better our present views and also find possibilities to revise them.
The Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, Aug 1, 2006
Evidence is the very core of Husserlian phenomenology, with the term "evidence" signifying for Hu... more Evidence is the very core of Husserlian phenomenology, with the term "evidence" signifying for Husserl the phenomenological perspective on the question of truth. In contrast to the conventional philosophical understanding of "truth" in mainly epistemological terms, Husserl's notion of "evidence", as elaborated in his Logical Investigations (1900-1), is more essentially ontological, pointing to the way in which a phenomenon becomes clear to us in its constitution. Husserl's main point in the Sixth Investigation was that we can "see" how evidence functions when we compare something in the fullness of its presence with the emptiness of its absence. This paper considers the example Husserl offers of the room where the lights go off in order to illuminate the breakthrough for phenomenology achieved by Logical Investigations in its move beyond logic and epistemology to the primary level of pretheoretical experience as the reality of the real.
Demokraattisen yhteisön toiminnalle on olennaista kyetä keskustelemaan yhteisistä asioista. Yliop... more Demokraattisen yhteisön toiminnalle on olennaista kyetä keskustelemaan yhteisistä asioista. Yliopisto syntyi aikoinaan antiikissa vastatakseen demokratian tarpeisiin. Platonin akatemian perillisinä akateemisen yhteisön tulisi kyetä esimerkilliseen keskusteluun, dialogiin, yhteisölle olennaisista asiois ta. Tarkastelen tässä akateemisen keskustelun viimeaikaisia ääri-ilmiöitä.
Husserl claimed that reduction is the true starting point of phenomenological research, but to fi... more Husserl claimed that reduction is the true starting point of phenomenological research, but to figure out how this deed should actually be accomplished has turned out to be a very challenging task. In this study, I explicate how Husserl accomplished reduction during his series of lectures entitled The Idea of Phenomenology. He does not state it explicitly, but what actually happened on the last day of the lectures can be seen as consistent with his descriptions of reduction as an act. Understood in this way, reduction is the model of how to do philosophy. The result of Husserl's reduction is the correlation between appearance and "that which appears" or, to use Husserl's later terminology, between noēsis and noēma. When this correlation is understood as an outcome of reduction and not as a result of an analysis, we, as readers of Husserl, will be in a better position to avoid natural attitude in our interpretations.
Artikkelissaan "Heidegger ja suomalainen analyyttinen fi losofi a" (Tieteessä tapahtuu 2/2004) Sa... more Artikkelissaan "Heidegger ja suomalainen analyyttinen fi losofi a" (Tieteessä tapahtuu 2/2004) Sami Pihlström lukee teokseni Se ei sittenkään pyöri (jatkossa SESP, Tammi 2002) jatkavan kääntäen sitä teilausperinnettä, jolla on reagoitu eritoten Martin Heideggerin ajatteluun. Pihlström näkee kirjassa vastaiskun aineksia ja katson sen jatkavan jyrkkien ja hedelmättömi-en vastakkaisuuksien rakentamista fi losofi seen kenttään. Pihlströmin kirjoitus hämmensi minua, koska kirjoittaessani kirjaa olin tavoitellut aivan muuta. Teosta valmistellessani myös pyrin punnitsemaan jokaisen sanan huolella ja työstämään tekstiä kunnes se on havainnollisen selkeä. Pihlströ
Nowadays we tend to regard the idea of a university as an outdated subject. The world of universi... more Nowadays we tend to regard the idea of a university as an outdated subject. The world of universities is today so complex and diverse that no general doctrine of the university seems possible. In a recent article Alasdair MacIntyre challenges this view and points out that by giving up the question “What is university?” we also give up the question “What is an educated mind?” In this article I will return to the old discussion on the idea of a university. I will go all the way back to Plato, but my main theme is J. V. Snellman’s essay On Academic Studies (1840). There Snellman, a young university lecturer at the time, defends his view that the university is a community of selves. The essay strongly emphasises that students should not only learn to know but also to act in a responsible way as selves. However, the text also reflects on Snellman’s own activity before the publication. He had defended academic freedom against the rector of the Imperial Alexander University of Finland. As a result, Snellman was in the end sentenced in an open court and forced to leave the university. Snellman’s view is certainly not the final definition of the university, but as it, besides presenting a theoretical view on the essence of the university, also reflects on activity in a university community, it gives us elements for reflecting on the idea of a university and an educated mind.
The story of how the sciences began to understand themselves as independent fields of research st... more The story of how the sciences began to understand themselves as independent fields of research starts by detaching them from philosophy. The identity of the science in question will then further develop as it writes its own history. Higher education studies is, in such reflections, understood as a relatively new field that has its beginnings in the 1970s in questions of psychology, sociology and educational studies. Recent discussions have pointed out that there is an identity crisis going on within this field. This study returns to the old tradition of how a science forms its identity with the help of philosophy. The study returns to the influential formulations of Aristotle. Olaf Pedersen writes in his book on the history of universities that "many of our present difficulties, on closer inspection, appear to have been built into the system right from the beginning". Our aim is not primarily to study what Aristotle said about higher education but instead to understand our present views and problems better. Recent discussion has pointed out that "[t]he themes addressed in higher education research have tended to be influenced by relatively short-term institutional, national and supranational concerns, debates and policies about higher education" (Brennan et al., 2008, 5). Although the importance of historical perspectives has been noted in discussions on the research agenda of higher education studies (Brennan et al., 2008), actual reflections on the history of the field tend to cover only a few decades (Neave, 1985; Brennan and Teichler, 2008; cf. Tight, 2003). This time scale seems natural since higher education research started as late as in the early 1970s as an independent field of its own. Nevertheless, one can also tell a longer version of the history of higher education research. Lately, it has been pointed out by many authors and from different point of view that there is an identity crisis in higher education and higher education research (Albert
Fernando Floresin ja Terry Winogradin Understanding Computers and Cognition poikkeaa perinteisist... more Fernando Floresin ja Terry Winogradin Understanding Computers and Cognition poikkeaa perinteisista ohjelmoinnin lahtokohtien pohdinnoista. Teoksessa asetetaan syrjaan lahtokohta, jota tekijat kutsuvat rationalistiseksi perinteeksi, ja syvennytaan sen sijaan fenomenologiaan. Keskeinen tekija tassa siirtymassa on representaationhypoteesin hylkaaminen. Kirjoittajat nojaavat lahinna Martin Heideggerin, Hans-Georg Gadamerin ja Humberto Maturanan tuotantoon, mutta tassa artikkelissa lahden liikkeelle Edmund Husserlin fenomenologisesta reduktiosta. Tulkitsen Floresin suorittaneen reduktion hanen paatyessaan hylkaamaan representaatiot.
The roots of teaching at a university level extends all the way to antiquity. Lecturing, that is ... more The roots of teaching at a university level extends all the way to antiquity. Lecturing, that is the way of teaching where the professor speaks and the students listen, is still a popular method, even though nowadays it is difficult to justify it pedagogically. Lecturing scarcely supports independent and active learning. In order to find arguments for lecturing as a teaching method in higher education, we need to go back all the way to Aristotle. On the other hand, the legacy of antiquity has also aimed for other kinds of learning than passive listening, from Plato on. For instance, in the Socratic tradition the professor does not distribute his or her knowledge, but rather assists the students to learn by themselves. Thus, we have inherited both good and bad practices from antiquity. By recollecting the origins of our tradition, we may comprehend better our present views and also find possibilities to revise them.
The Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, Aug 1, 2006
Evidence is the very core of Husserlian phenomenology, with the term "evidence" signifying for Hu... more Evidence is the very core of Husserlian phenomenology, with the term "evidence" signifying for Husserl the phenomenological perspective on the question of truth. In contrast to the conventional philosophical understanding of "truth" in mainly epistemological terms, Husserl's notion of "evidence", as elaborated in his Logical Investigations (1900-1), is more essentially ontological, pointing to the way in which a phenomenon becomes clear to us in its constitution. Husserl's main point in the Sixth Investigation was that we can "see" how evidence functions when we compare something in the fullness of its presence with the emptiness of its absence. This paper considers the example Husserl offers of the room where the lights go off in order to illuminate the breakthrough for phenomenology achieved by Logical Investigations in its move beyond logic and epistemology to the primary level of pretheoretical experience as the reality of the real.
Demokraattisen yhteisön toiminnalle on olennaista kyetä keskustelemaan yhteisistä asioista. Yliop... more Demokraattisen yhteisön toiminnalle on olennaista kyetä keskustelemaan yhteisistä asioista. Yliopisto syntyi aikoinaan antiikissa vastatakseen demokratian tarpeisiin. Platonin akatemian perillisinä akateemisen yhteisön tulisi kyetä esimerkilliseen keskusteluun, dialogiin, yhteisölle olennaisista asiois ta. Tarkastelen tässä akateemisen keskustelun viimeaikaisia ääri-ilmiöitä.
Husserl claimed that reduction is the true starting point of phenomenological research, but to fi... more Husserl claimed that reduction is the true starting point of phenomenological research, but to figure out how this deed should actually be accomplished has turned out to be a very challenging task. In this study, I explicate how Husserl accomplished reduction during his series of lectures entitled The Idea of Phenomenology. He does not state it explicitly, but what actually happened on the last day of the lectures can be seen as consistent with his descriptions of reduction as an act. Understood in this way, reduction is the model of how to do philosophy. The result of Husserl's reduction is the correlation between appearance and "that which appears" or, to use Husserl's later terminology, between noēsis and noēma. When this correlation is understood as an outcome of reduction and not as a result of an analysis, we, as readers of Husserl, will be in a better position to avoid natural attitude in our interpretations.
Artikkelissaan "Heidegger ja suomalainen analyyttinen fi losofi a" (Tieteessä tapahtuu 2/2004) Sa... more Artikkelissaan "Heidegger ja suomalainen analyyttinen fi losofi a" (Tieteessä tapahtuu 2/2004) Sami Pihlström lukee teokseni Se ei sittenkään pyöri (jatkossa SESP, Tammi 2002) jatkavan kääntäen sitä teilausperinnettä, jolla on reagoitu eritoten Martin Heideggerin ajatteluun. Pihlström näkee kirjassa vastaiskun aineksia ja katson sen jatkavan jyrkkien ja hedelmättömi-en vastakkaisuuksien rakentamista fi losofi seen kenttään. Pihlströmin kirjoitus hämmensi minua, koska kirjoittaessani kirjaa olin tavoitellut aivan muuta. Teosta valmistellessani myös pyrin punnitsemaan jokaisen sanan huolella ja työstämään tekstiä kunnes se on havainnollisen selkeä. Pihlströ
Nowadays we tend to regard the idea of a university as an outdated subject. The world of universi... more Nowadays we tend to regard the idea of a university as an outdated subject. The world of universities is today so complex and diverse that no general doctrine of the university seems possible. In a recent article Alasdair MacIntyre challenges this view and points out that by giving up the question “What is university?” we also give up the question “What is an educated mind?” In this article I will return to the old discussion on the idea of a university. I will go all the way back to Plato, but my main theme is J. V. Snellman’s essay On Academic Studies (1840). There Snellman, a young university lecturer at the time, defends his view that the university is a community of selves. The essay strongly emphasises that students should not only learn to know but also to act in a responsible way as selves. However, the text also reflects on Snellman’s own activity before the publication. He had defended academic freedom against the rector of the Imperial Alexander University of Finland. As a result, Snellman was in the end sentenced in an open court and forced to leave the university. Snellman’s view is certainly not the final definition of the university, but as it, besides presenting a theoretical view on the essence of the university, also reflects on activity in a university community, it gives us elements for reflecting on the idea of a university and an educated mind.
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