The Bologna process and philosophy

. M and throw the question, or the glove through another blog about how the Bologna process will affect the field of philosophical studies. The question has its that, as we say in Galicia, because it presupposes that the Bologna framework and program implementation involving the death wound to the humanities and the possibility for students to develop skills beyond the technical college.

As some readers know, I am not exactly the best person to talk in Bologna, my allegiance to the Spanish university ends precisely when the project begins to take shape and when institutions must begin to seriously consider changing their structures to implement the new schedule. While all this began to happen, I moved to Scotland, Aberdeen University. The differences between the educational program of Spanish and British universities was clear: starting, many of the courses in Spain were forced into the UK simply did not exist. The contrast was noticeable in the sense that one was raised that students had no general training to finish college, something incomprehensible in Spain.

Spain compared to Europe

D ebo say before continuing that my experience in the UK is linked to a multidisciplinary research center - Center for Modern Thought - where living historians of science Mario Biagioli, historians and theorists of film-Kriss Ravetto, directors Film-Raul Ruiz, anthropologists, Daniel James, James Leach and Trevor Stack, philosophers, Alberto Moreiras, Petar Bojanic, "Christopher Fynsk critical theorists, Nadia Kiwan, theoretical physicists, Celso Grebogi, lawyer-Tony Carti - , political scientists-Mustapha Kamal Pasha, John Paterson, Joachim Schaper, theologians and historians of literature and culture, Cairns Craig, Michael Syrotinski, Nikolaj Lübecker, Nerea Arruti, Julia Biggane, Teresa Vilarós, Nick Nesbitt. The way of uniting a group as varied as its students are done through biannual seminars where all members participate and frequent conferences and congresses which invites the world experts in many fields. In the center there are no courses for traditional use. If we teach, we do in the disciplines which concern us, but the Center itself is a meeting place, discussion and research. This formula makes university education in a very different experience to pursue a doctorate conventional, and has its advantages and disadvantages which I think gives a guideline to those who are frightened by the program in Bologna.

The benefits should be emphasized much more extensive training than any other doctoral program to know: as a student, you decide what you want to investigate and how they want to, and in return offers a huge range of possibilities approach, as well as firsthand research and trends in disciplines that you are forbidden in principle. This in itself is priceless. The disadvantages are also clear, at least from an external perspective: there is no apparent structure which would give coherence to the curriculum, there is an exclusive domain of expertise and research is a particular individual task. I say that is a disadvantage to be treated after the structure is greater than that of the Center, since post that specific research must be made significantly for the other members, so that forces a discipline of writing work and greatly stimulants and individuals.

In the British education system differs greatly depending on the university where one is formed and the characteristics of the department to house it. Without doubt, one of the differences with respect to Spain is the lack of uniformity in degree programs. If one studies in a literature department dump, say, Latin American literature, little will of medieval and Renaissance literature, but compared to stagnation in Spain usually fewer-in the United Kingdom and the United States, it is very common moving students to study for their doctorates at institutions where the professionals who are interested. In fact, the PhD is regarded as the true area of expertise versus the degree, which generally operates in a very particular: a large number of students moving between various disciplines and the end result is an unknown until they have to decide where career focus.

The result? Well, my perception is that in regard to graduate student average in Spain usually have a more solid formation, or at least more structured. But unlike Spain, in the Anglo-Saxon students finish their studies with sufficient capacity to perform the chosen profession. One difference that calls attention enormously over the Spanish undergraduate student is confidence in the system on the one hand, and independence and maturity to change the curriculum in accordance with the interests that the student will develop progressively. And that, from my point of view, is an advantage over us.

Bologna may have many bad things, no doubt, like any educational program such broad ambitions, but has some good. The first and most important, higher education becomes a place where professionals are trained. It may be aberrant to purists, the University is no longer the same as 20 years ago: the number of students and graduates is so vast that requires this type of strategies to give coherence and organization to an institution that in principle is designed to accommodate a student population so large. It was necessary to train professionals who are able to acquire skills for the real world, Bologna and if accomplished, will merit the waiver of certain aspects: Primum uiuere ...

On the waiver and institutional dependency

D uring all these months I have read many columns and articles about Bologna colleagues. Honestly, one finds them all and not fair, since it encompasses a falsehood-generalize. But I want to address those who fear Bologna and treat it as the apocalypse of Western culture as we know it. One thing that surprised when one spends some time in other universities is the dependency that we, the professionals who work in them, created around the institution.

College is for the vast majority of its users to use the term "conscience" part of a process, not an end in itself. Most students are watching with a utilitarian perspective and that is not necessarily bad. For those who love the humanities, in all the grandeur of the word, it should not be a problem that our institutions do not devote adequate attention to us. Do not live in a time where it is difficult to parallel or complementary projects which are developed at the University and, if one looks fears or reservations in Bologna, is a remarkable time to take them forward. If Bologna upset today, as never have the means to be independent of the institutions and conduct long-range projects with minimum investment.

Nobody can overlook that, in the professional field, the humanities have increasingly smaller audience but, moreover, a lot of people who have a legitimate interest in them outside of a defined curriculum online. The conflict arises when one wants to institutional support for something that does not generate this interest in a particular audience. One can not depend on an institution to give importance to their work if this is supposedly on addressing issues of universal interest. If an expert in the history of philosophy, which is not the same as a philosopher in the history of science is not the same as a scientist in the history of art, which is not the same as an artist - or the history of literature, which is not the same as a writer-no effort to convert their field of interest in something attractive, then the problem is not social or institutional, is a problem given their collective approach and as such must be addressed.

Which way to address criticism that is constructive?

J oseph Louis Molinuevo has said very clearly in his blog: Before circles university professionals dedicated to the humanities is hurled against Bologna, it is useful to take a look at the social situation of their profession, because there are some problems and some rather more urgent matters that the change of an educational model, which can always be solved by many means. I'll close with the questions that I think all of them (us) we should ask before continuing protest against Bologna.

1. Will it help the current education system to form the critical capacity? If so, why the demand for places in the domain of letters decreases steadily why crows every other day also the crisis of the humanities. The history of philosophy only teaches history of philosophy, and philosophy prenteder discipline will disappear if you do the curriculum is a historical fallacy, there is an enormous amount of first-class philosophers who had little or nothing to do with a similar institution the University-and a slap to anything remotely resembling logical reasoning.

2. Is there a real social demand for university departments created content in the field of letters? One thing that always amazes me that I attend a conference in America on philosophy, literature or art history is that the vast majority of attendees do not study something remotely similar to what is in them. I remember years ago talking to one of Spain's most important publishers in the humanities, I commented on how our country was impracticable to make collections as those made in Italy, France, Germany, or in the Anglo-Saxon . The reason is that in these countries had a potential audience for such publications were not in Castilian. The NEXT question is clear:

3. What happens in these countries, which have sometimes with a linguistic area much smaller than the Castilian, that does not happen in ours? After skimming the competent reader profile on them, the answer does not allow shirking: our neighbors, traditionally have always valued a practice of writing much more considerate of the neophyte. There are collections that cover a subject in a satisfactory manner and for a bridge that reads more specialized texts. There is an ethics of writing that teaches sacrifice the data by the story told, and this is something I've never seen in any university teaching Spanish and yes, on the contrary, there is little consideration in foreign universities.

4. From all this follows a practice that seems to have been, and remains, the most counterproductive of all in the world of high culture in Castilian, and is the ostracism of professionals dedicated to teaching it. Consistently, when you read a column in the press where warning to the humanities, never explained clearly and convincingly that the second largest first-what is lost with its disappearance, and what is more important Very rarely, a warning goes beyond questions of grammatical accuracy or the importance of knowing Latin and Greek roots of Castilian.

5. An intellectual, a genuine intellectual, has a vocation for the cloister is not infinite nor the refectory, but by working on what legitimately believes that it is important and make it visible and understandable, successfully, to understand, with the company paying your tax file maintenance where he spends his life selflessly, the refectory, where he writes and the arena from which to communicate. The exercise really damaging is the opposite: to defend the centrality of the cloister and the refectory and seen as secondary, tertiary or quaternary, but disclosure and transparency of the investigation. And if it bothers the scholar, is perhaps because the scholar needs the lesson in humility that Bologna is giving him.

6. The last and most important: Why is the only university facing down the program in Bologna?

V e live in a strange world, in a world where Brad Pitt has done more for the Iliad that any criticism in twentieth-century Castilian, where Oliver Stone has done more to Plutarch and Quintus Curtius Hellenistic Rufio that all Hispanic and where Zack Snyder made by Diodorus Siculus and Herodotus what seemed impossible. Seeing so obviously unfair, but no less true for being unfair. Anyway, I still believe that our task is now more than ever, to form citizens capable readers and critics. But I think the critical first starts for oneself, and the institutional independence-if it bothers the institution may be a healthier practices that hypercritical of Bologna can carry forward. The academic body, the body of teachers in secondary education is a separate subject and worthy of all praise, should take very seriously the challenges that Europe offers, and above all, an audience-the society that nourishes-stop and have since time immemorial abandoned.

I leave here some sites that have joined this proposal to speak of philosophy in the context of Bologna: Phiblógsopho, The mirror of reality, before the Ashes, ... If there are more who have followed the meme, they can always leave the link in the comments or entries cited in this.

Tagged as: Bologna, philosophy, university