Education or “paideia,” “Bildung,” or the formation of an outlook and
way of life has been a central issue throughout the human history,
both East and West. For Plato, education was not simply to put
knowledge into people’s mind ‘like putting sight into blind eyes’ but
rather to free the entire soul for what was ‘brightest.’ For the
educator is to go to society, as with Socrates, this meant turning to
society to draw out its sense of truth, justice, courage and
moderation, thereby enabling people to be friends of wisdom.

However, the theory and hence the pressures of modern life have
associated knowledge with power which humans could use for their own
benefit, both personal and professional. Recently the purpose of
education has become further rationalized as a training process to
enhance human instrumental reasoning. With the rapid development of
science, technology, and industrialization, as well as of finance,
market economics, and commercialization, education was turned into a
means for learning skills and techniques. Thus, schools and
universities have come to serve only utilitarian purposes, namely, to
train students to learn skills or techniques to fit into the job
market, in order to be promoted, to gain high salaries, and so on. In
this sense, education is considered part of the commercial market
focusing on competition for profits and interest, which neglecting
such important dimensions of education as formation, cultivation and
moral education.

The value which the Catholic University of Vallendar would seek to
add is to open the meaning of an education and human striving to the
formation of an enriched sense of personhood. It seeks to relate
education, e.g.,

– to a life of caring with the means now provided by science and
technology in this explosive and fast developing age of information
and communication;
– to the meaning of this for life in a democratic society; and
– to promote intercultural dialogue in these ever more complex global
times.

In sum, education faces many challenges today: social, economic and
political. These emerge from modern technology, the sciences, and
globalization and entail rapid transformation of traditional ways of
life.

As these challenges tend to reduce education to job training they
will be addressed in a series of annual one week seminars about
education at the Catholic University of Vallendar, Germany. The
seminar will bring together experts from different disciplinary,
cultural, and religious backgrounds for a creative rethinking about
education.

Application

Applications for participation in this seminar should be sent by
email by February 1, 2014, toH.Zaborowski@pthv.de and
cua-rvp@cua.edu. Participants will cover their own travel costs. The
PTHV will provide simple room and board. The seminar will be held at
the Catholic University in Vallendar, Germany (www.pthv.de). The
participants will arrive on August 3 and depart on August 9. The
University is about 90 minutes away from Frankfurt International
Airport.

The application should include:
(1) a vita describing one’s education, professional positions and
activities;
(2) a list of the applicants’ publications;
(3) a letter stating your interest and involvement in this theme and
its relation to your past and future work in philosophy and
related studies; and
(4) an abstract of a study(s) you might present as an integral part
of the seminar.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Dr. Holger Zaborowski
Lehrstuhl für Geschichte der Philosophie und philosophische Ethik
Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Vallendar
Pallottistr. 3
D-56179 Vallendar
Germany
Email: H.Zaborowski@pthv.de
Web: http://www.crvp.org/seminar/seminar_14-summer.htm