University 4.0: philosophical and methodological analysis

This article is of philosophic and methodological nature and is aimed at understanding the content of society development stages and relevant university transformation. Philosophical categories «activity-related - social - anthropological» are used as an instrument for analysis. Characteristics of four presented generations of universities are related to different stages of society development: pre-industrial - University 1.0; industrial - University 2.0; post-industrial - University 3.0; cognitive - University 4.0. Transition from one university generation to another is analyzed with the help of «overcoming - suggestion - development» scheme of activities, cognition and thinking, understanding of the world, institutional forms, etc. University changes taking place now are interpreted using the logic of phase transformation as an aspect of post-industrial period. Authors discuss peculiar features of cognitive phase - University 4.0. Obtained results allow for new understanding of changes taking places at universities and define university development perspectives. This article is the second of a series of publications presenting philosophic and methodological grounds of analyzing university transformation as a social institution, characteristics of university generations, description of University 4.0 contour.