From the Positivist to the Hermeneutic University: Restoring the Place of Meaning and Liberal Learning in Higher Education

Abstract

This article argues that the university must shift from a positivist model, which emphasizes knowledge production and job training, to a hermeneutic one, which emphasizes understanding and meaning. Such a shift would be a response to two interrelated problems. First, the university suffers from an identity crisis in that it no longer holds a monopoly on the production and dissemination of knowledge. Second, Western culture at large suffers from a crisis of meaning both in a visceral sense and in the use of language to express meaning. Both of these crises are related to the increasing access to information and globalization. This article endeavors primarily to understand and assess these interrelated crises, but it also concludes with preliminary suggestions for how to begin to think about reformulating higher learning in hermeneutic terms.