전환기에서의 대학교양교육의 방향

New Directions in University Liberal Education

This essay seeks to examine the general directions to which liberal education should point in relevance with the transformations in the age of globalization. Culture in current use has derived from the European tradition since the eighteenth century: that is, the development of qualities proper to human being. In this regard, liberal education aims at a man of culture which means a mental formation of intellectual and moral capabilities for a humane life. The significance of liberal education was widely acknowledged in the 1960 s and most of the universities in Korea established a college of liberal education, but because of inadequate methological support, it did not bring about substantial success. Accordingly, from the latter part of 1970 s the colleges of liberal education began to disintegrate, and few survived up to the present. But the importance of liberal education again came to light at the leading universities in several countries, and in compliance with this new tendency some of the Korean universities just started building a new type of structure solely in charge of liberal education. This essay tries to observe the philosophical background of liberal education, and stress the humanities of great weight in liberal education, and at the same time attempt to urge the better understanding of the social sciences as well as of the natural sciences to cope with the intellectual transformations in the age of informational, techonological revolutions.