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Toward a Pantopic University of Open Solutions

And that is when one final question comes to mind: what if this entire process – learning to frame a problem, explore its various dimensions, compare different perspectives, and work together to find possible solutions – were, in fact, an essential part of learning? Before answering that, let’s remember that since the dawn of time, human societies have continually passed down the means by which they addressed the challenges they faced: farming, building, healing, governing, transmitting knowledge, creating, trading, defending themselves, and cooperating. Culture itself, according to some, could be defined as a vast repository of the problems encountered and the solutions devised to address them. However, we should note that this repository often remains scattered across disciplines, professions, regions, generations, and traditions, even as contemporary problems largely transcend these boundaries. The Pantopic University of Open Solutions was born out of this conviction: we need a space-time where human knowledge, experiences, and the ability to frame problems – whether they stem from science, art, philosophy, spirituality, craftsmanship, agriculture, business, or everyday life – can be brought together. Such a university seeks to open new pathways, to facilitate the circulation of knowledge, and to foster a cross-disciplinary understanding of the human condition. While it can be part of formal education by promoting learning, it is also conceived as a lifelong process. Its goals are clear: to develop our ability to explore, experiment, engage in dialogue, create, and take action. Its starting point remains the same: “What is the problem?” and its ultimate aim is to help us better understand how we can respond to it, both individually and collectively.

“At present, we have reached the stage where we must teach people what no one knew yesterday, and prepare them in our schools for what no one knows yet but that some will need to know tomorrow.”

Margaret Mead

Toward a New Propaedeutics…

In addition to facilitating the use of all pantopic tools, the ambition of the University of Open Solutions leads us to reconsider what should precede access to specialized knowledge. What do we learn before we learn? How do we prepare a mind to enter a world whose realities never present themselves as separate according to the boundaries of our disciplines? The mission of a preparatory program is precisely not to add a preliminary course to all others, but to give everyone the means to connect what they are about to learn to what already exists around them. It aims to foster habits of curiosity, inquiry, listening, and making connections, by broadening one’s perspective across cultures, languages, sciences, arts, technologies, professions, philosophies, and experiences. How can we better distinguish the complicated from the complex? How can we shift our perspective? How can we recognize what we know and what we do not know – but also how can we embrace multiple narratives, question our own points of reference, or understand that all knowledge is situated within a history and a world? Such a preparatory course encourages us to revisit the question “Where is the problem?” by offering intellectual, sensory, and relational tools that enable us to envision an education grounded in complexity, plurality, and responsibility.

Toward an “Encyclopedagogy”

It is to give substance to this ambition that we propose the term “encyclopedagogy.” This neologism, of course, combines the idea of an encyclopedia – the desire to explore and connect bodies of knowledge – with that of pedagogy – the art of enabling everyone to learn and grow through them. As we have said, this is not about returning to the illusion of total knowledge that a person could possess, but rather about cultivating, from a very young age, an understanding of how things are connected. To understand that a question about water can simultaneously pertain to physics, geography, history, economics, politics, health, cultures, and interpersonal relationships. To understand that a disappearing language involves memory, identity, knowledge, narratives, technologies, and the future. To understand that a human problem can almost never be confined to a single category. Encyclopedagogy thus seeks to reconnect different bodies of knowledge without denying their distinctiveness, to develop an intelligence that takes into account the body, the mind, and emotions, without neglecting the relationship to artificial intelligence. It also seeks to make curiosity, openness, and questioning part of everyday practice. It recognizes that humanity is a species that both learns and teaches, and that its educational journey is one of its greatest capacities for transformation. Encyclopedagogy thus becomes a way of learning to navigate the complexity of the world and to become aware of the role and responsibility that each person can play within it.

Encyclopedagogy - Indefinition :

An educational approach that could begin as early as early childhood, approaching knowledge beyond its constant fragmentation and seeking to establish connections and bridges within it. The idea is to link these elements by using tools and methods that embrace the complexity and richness of the world – its cultures, sciences, arts, languages, professions, and spiritualities… It also involves developing a multifaceted intelligence in harmony with the needs of the body, emotions, and mind. Encyclopedagogy thus aims for a general understanding of the world and, to that end, encourages the everyday, ordinary use of new forms of encyclopedic inquiry, where curiosity, generosity, and open-mindedness are valued. The primary objective is to cultivate an awareness of each person’s place and responsibility in the world by encouraging critical thinking and fostering active engagement in society. It recognizes the diversity of knowledge and experiences and seeks to integrate them in an inclusive manner, helping to shape conscious, responsible, and enlightened individuals.

Solutions from the past, present, and future…

If the Pantopic University is to help identify human problems, it must, of course, promote the path that leads – or will lead – to solutions. A solution is never merely what we imagine today to address a present difficulty. Humanity possesses an immense store of solutions tested over the centuries and millennia: some have worked, others have failed; some have solved one problem only to create others; some have been forgotten, while others continue to transform the way we live. We must therefore learn to look to the past – not to search for a golden age, but to understand what previous generations invented, passed down, and sometimes abandoned. But we must also look to the present, to observe the initiatives, knowledge, and experiments that are currently seeking to address problems. And, of course, we must look to the future, to imagine what else might be attempted – without confusing foresight with prediction. This is why we speak of open solutions: open over time, because they can be inherited, updated, or invented; open to others, because no single society holds all the answers; open to discussion, because a solution must be open to scrutiny; and finally, open to their own consequences, because solving a problem also means asking what the solution will in turn bring about. The Pantopic University of Open Solutions could thus become a mobile space, taking shape in conjunction with the Pantopic Conferences, where we learn as much to question solutions as we do to cross-reference them, compare their contexts, understand their successes and limitations, adapt them, combine them, and imagine new ones. For perhaps the ultimate question is no longer just, “Where is the problem?” but also: What have we already learned, what more can we learn, and what can we learn together to unlock the solutions of tomorrow?