Masters programs in philosophy and contemporary times: Challenges and prospects

Alek­san­dr M. Dorozhkin
Nation­al Research Lobachevsky State Uni­ver­si­ty of Nizh­ni Nov­gorod
Svet­lana V. Shibarshi­na
Nation­al Research Lobachevsky State Uni­ver­si­ty of Nizh­ni Nov­gorod

Mas­ters pro­grams in phi­los­o­phy and con­tem­po­rary times: Chal­lenges and prospects

Abstract. This arti­cle focus­es on the changes hap­pen­ing in con­tem­po­rary Mas­ters Phi­los­o­phy pro­grams tak­en in a broad­er con­text of changes in acad­e­mia on the whole. As an exam­ple the authors con­sid­er the his­to­ry and evo­lu­tion of the Mas­ters pro­gram in phi­los­o­phy at Lobachevsky State Uni­ver­si­ty of Nizh­ni Nov­gorod (Rus­sia), focus­ing on the rea­sons for its cre­ation, pri­mar­i­ly relat­ed to the log­ic of the Hum­boldt mod­el of high­er edu­ca­tion. They accen­tu­ate that its new con­cept has been sug­gest­ed and intro­duced in con­text of the new gen­er­al socio-eco­nom­ic and cul­tur­al chal­lenges of the time, the accom­pa­ny­ing new uni­ver­si­ty mod­els and the preva­lence of insti­tu­tion­al prag­ma­tism. The authors inves­ti­gate the prob­lem of ways and instru­ments of orga­niz­ing cours­es and teach­ing in Mas­ters Phi­los­o­phy pro­grams that are more ade­quate to mod­ern times, as well as pos­si­ble careers of the grad­u­ates. The lat­ter issue address­es us to some prag­mat­ic ideas about pos­si­ble trans­for­ma­tions in aca­d­e­m­ic phi­los­o­phy, such as the ‘field phi­los­o­phy’ (Robert Frode­man and Adam Brig­gle) imply­ing a more active engage­ment of philoso­phers into inter­ac­tions with sci­en­tists, engi­neers, politi­cians, and oth­er social groups. Along with it, we also con­sid­er philoso­phers’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in inter­dis­ci­pli­nary research projects (Nan­cy Tua­na) and social and human­i­tar­i­an exper­tise.

Ключевые слова: high­er edu­ca­tion, Mas­ter in Phi­los­o­phy, Hum­boldt­ian uni­ver­si­ty, dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, insti­tu­tion­al prag­ma­tism

DOI: 10.5840/dspl20192332

Acknowl­edge­ments

The report­ed research was fund­ed by RSF (Russ­ian Sci­ence Foun­da­tion) with­in the research project No. 18–18-00238, “Non-Hum­boldt trad­ing zones: an idea and project of the new infra­struc­ture of sci­ence”.

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