The Last Mission of Our Being: On Education and Its Deformation in the Age of Know












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            * The Last Mission of Our Being: On Education and Its Deformation in the Age of Knowledge
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            On March 16, 2010, the famous and provocative scholar and critic of the ongoing reforms of

            education in the EU, author of the book Theory of Miseducation, Professor Paul Liessmann, 
            called The Last Mission of Our Being: On Education and Its Deformation in the Age of Knowl
            lecture, which was a part of the Charles University Faculty of Arts' Wilhelm von Humboldt 

            series, was greeted with much applause. The Austrian scholar was introduced by Rector of C
            prof. Václav Hampl and the chairman of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, prof


            A recording of the lecture is available here [ URL "http://iforum.cuni.cz/IFORUM-8830-vers
            profLiessmann.mp3"]


            Rector Hampl said in his introductory talk that he is “very pleased by the sophisticated d
            in this book on the current reforms”. He admitted that he often feels “that we should mayb

            for a little while, so that we have time to do actual work”. In his opinion, the ideas and
            expressed in Theory of Miseducation resonate very closely with the attitudes and opinions 
            Charles University in its consensual stance towards the upcoming White Paper on educationa

            Chairman Drahoš criticized the efforts leading to industrialization of education and asked
            knowledge is still the central idea behind the existence of universities and research inst
            respect, he pointed out the questionable scientometric system of the The Research and Deve

            of the Czech government, according to which Professor Liessmann's book would get mere 40 p

            The lecture on Humboldts's society of knowledge, Adorno's society of the half-educated and

            society of miseducation is available in the original languages (German and Czech), includi
            discussion.
            P.K.


            Translation: Jaroslav Švelch