The crisis of anthropocentrism and the mission of the university: Science, philosophy, values

UDC 378:1
DOI 10.20339/AM.05-26.008

Vladimir A. Mukin, Cand. Sci. (Phys. & Math.), Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology and Pedagogy, I.N. Ulyanov Chuvash State University; e-mail: mukin-va@yandex.ru, RSCI SPIN-code 3501-7706, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9147-3799, Scopus Author ID: 6506421864, Web of Science ResearcherID: F-1436-2017, RSCI Author ID: 635786

The current stage of civilization development forces us to reconsider established views on the place of humans in the world. Rapid technological progress and the emergence of ‘strong’ artificial intelligence are exacerbating the anthropocentric crisis and require a revision of two fundamental worldviews: the scientific and the philosophical pictures of the world. Unlike previous studies that confine themselves to a conceptual justification of the university’s role under anthropological transformations, this article proposes an operational model for analyzing university space based on a phase approach, which allows a parametric description of the mechanisms behind the formation of life values. The aim of the article is to substantiate why the university space becomes the key institution for shaping life values capable of responding to the challenges of the posthumanist era. The research employs the method of social spaces and the phase approach, which make it possible to view the university space as a multidimensional system where educational, research and culture-creating activities serve as coordinate axes, and the trajectory of movement in this space reflects the dynamics of value transformations. The article systematizes the main trends of posthumanism (critical, speculative, naturalistic), and reveals the content of transhumanism and accelerationist concepts. Based on an analysis of contemporary philosophical discussions, it demonstrates the fundamental difference between posthumanism as a critique of anthropocentric attitudes and transhumanism as a project of technological transformation of human nature. Special attention is paid to the correlations between the parameters of university space and the socio-cultural factors of societal development. A conceptual model of such correlations is proposed, in which independent variables are types of university activity, and dependent variables are value orientations measured using standardized psychometric instruments. It is shown that it is precisely through the cultural universals formed at the university that life values, which set the vector of social development, are programmed. The conclusion substantiates the need to create a new universal picture of the world that combines scientific achievements with the value orientations of philosophy, where the university acts as a space of meaning‑generation. The results can be used in designing higher education programs and developing strategies for educational work.

Keywords: anthropocentric crisis, scientific picture of the world, philosophical picture of the world, posthumanism, transhumanism, artificial intelligence, university space, life values, cultural universals, phase approach


 

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