Education at the crossroads Part 2 (original) (raw)
Related papers
2014
This paper explores the possibility of a politics of technology, before turning to the question regarding a compass of sorts for education. In this regard, Heidegger offers the notion of the ‘fourfold’ as a touchstone for a truly human mode of living, which can therefore also serve to orient education. Unless, through education, a new generation of post-conventional citizens were to be made possible, we might end up like the zombies/consumers in Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead. To launch an educational project like this, however, we should remind ourselves of Lyotard’s notion of the inhuman, which (paradoxically) could be a source of rescuing our humanity. This is related to what Kristeva calls the exigency for ‘revolt’ at a time when the entertainment industry distracts people from what is at stake. The paper concludes by alluding to Benjamin’s notion of ‘empty’ time, as opposed to a time when this emptiness can be transcended by seizing the moment and ‘turning’ history in a different di...
Heidegger, Technology and Education (Wiley-Blackwell top-cited paper in 2020-21)
Journal of the Philosophy of Education, 2020
In this paper, I defend the viability and relevance of Heidegger's philosophy of technology and consider its emancipatory potential in the field of education. First, I situate Heidegger's philosophy of technology within the broader emancipatory project of his early work-the fundamental ontology of Being and Time-and emphasise the role of language and (self-) appropriation in human subjectivity. Second, in light of the importance Heidegger placed on education for resisting the reifying and alienating effects of technology, I conclude with some critical reflections on recent attempts to develop a positive Heideggerian programme of education. In particular, I reveal some crucial limitations of the pragmatist or 'bodily coping' approachdefended by Hubert Dreyfus and Mark Wrathall and argue that an 'appropriative' alternative yields a more compelling philosophy of education, which emphasises the cultivation of moral articulacy.
Rethinking Education: Heidegger's Philosophy in the Service of Education
The English-speaking academic world increasingly recognizes Martin Heidegger’s potential contribution to education. In this article I explore key notions in Heidegger’s philosophy in order to further realize this potential. One purpose of examining the latent contribution of his work to education is to scrutinize and shape the relationship between philosophy and education and so to enhance both realms. As such, the article aims not only to challenge and redefine our perception of public education, but also to assist in understanding what it means to be a human being.
Education at the crossroads Part1
Setting out from the etymological meaning of the concept 'education', this paper is an attempt to conceptualize the contemporary educational terrain in so far as it is inescapably situated within the broader cultural landscape of 21 st-century globalized society. The priority granted to technical rationality in modern and postmodern societies is noted, and the related 'disciplinary' character of modernity is explored via Foucault. This is elaborated on through the work of Hardt and Negri on Empire, or the new form of sovereign power in the world, in which the 'multitude' is called upon to rescue democracy from its current crisis. Returning to Foucault, the preconditions of autonomy in a world where we are reduced to 'docile bodies' are outlined, and the urgent need for recovering such autonomy in the current global situation of deteriorating ecosystems is examined in relation to the dominant economic system of neoliberal capitalism.
On the basis of a close reading of three authors (Flusser, Stiegler, and Agamben), I try to elucidate what the growing presence of digital technologies in our lives implies for the sphere of schooling and education. Developing a technocentric perspective, I discuss whether what is happening today concerns just the newest form of humankind's fundamental dependency on a technological milieu or that it concerns a fundamental shift. From Flusser, I take the idea that the practice of writing shapes human subjectivity, as well as our very sense of history and progress, and that with the advent of digital technologies the possibility of a posthistorical era is granted. I confront this idea with Stiegler's analysis of technological tools and practices as strongly materialized memories, which amounts to a plea for securing the link with the particular history behind the technologies we use. Here, education should play a conservative role and take responsibility for using technologies in a correct way. I argue that Stiegler is not wholly consistent on this point and, moreover, that his view precludes the possibility to rethink the very meaning of education under present (digital) conditions. This possibility is opened if we turn to a philosopher which is ruthlessly criticized by Stiegler for being a technophobe: Agamben. I argue, however, that a more detailed reading of Agamben-n combination with Flusser-might show a completely different and far more positive appreciation for digital technology and that this view offers an opening for rethinking what education is all about.
Heidegger, Education and the ‘Cult of the Authentic’
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2014
Within educational philosophies that utilise the Heideggerian idea of 'authenticity' there can be distinguished at least two readings that correspond with the categories of 'weak' and 'strong' utopianism. 'Strong-utopianism' is the nostalgia for some lost Edenic paradise to be restored at some future time. Here it is the 'world' that needs to be transcended for it is the source of our inauthenticity, where we are the puppets of modernist-capitalist ideologies. 'Authenticity' here is a value-judgment, understood as something that makes you a better person. The 'inauthentic' person is simply deceived. 'Weak-utopianism' is recognising the forces for change in the 'everyday-immanent' where we do not look to overcome the world but own it as 'heritage'. 'Authenticity' here is an ontological choice, a modification of inauthenticity, not its opposite. The 'cult of the authentic' relates to the 'strong utopianism' where 'authenticity' has become fetishized, harking back to a purer, pre-modern state, untainted by the ideals of the Enlightenment and ethos of capitalism. 'Authentic education' is the overcoming of our environments and socio-historical contexts, opening up new horizons of meaning. The radical notion of freedom that this implies, where one is free from rather than free in the realisation of constraint, may also be another dividing line between the 'strong' and 'weak' readings, which lend themselves to a Messianic narrative. It will be argued that if 'authentic education' is understood through a 'strong utopianism' it actually re-enforces those very same dystopian ideals they look to overcome as characterised by 'enframing'.
Chasing Heideggerian circles: Freedom, call, and our educational ground
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2016
Over the last couple of decades, Heideggerian philosophy has become an important resource for educationalists. A growing body of literature has demonstrated its educational potential, thus illumining pivotal educational features and phenomena. Whereas my research is situated in the critical space opened by this literature, I adopt a slightly different perspective: in this paper, I discuss what we may refer to as the thoroughly educational nature of Heideggerian philosophy. I contend that Heideggerian thought is not only anchored by questions and features that are quintessentially pedagogical but also represents a passionate and ethical call to freedom, becoming and the space of the 'not-yet' , a call that appeals to the self to overturn his gesture and position; a call that is, in and of itself, educational. Rather than abandoning the initiative towards Being, Heidegger, in the late 1920s, created an ethic of resoluteness and choice that places freedom and responsibility centre stage. Hence, when analysing Heidegger's thought, we need not necessarily place educational concerns and demands from without, nor must we necessarily apply Heideggerian insights to analyse educational features and phenomena, for Heideggerian philosophy is always already rooted in, and in a sense is, an educational endeavour.
Heidegger, education, nation and race
Policy Futures in Education, 2015
There are many arguments about Heidegger's work Being and Time (1954). Many critics believe that Heidegger provides a new way of understanding ourselves from a philosophical perspective. However, while some critics emphasize the de-Nazification of Heidegger's thinking, other still promote the notion that Being and Time is pro-Nazi. What is more, this new way of understanding brings a new challenge to education. In this paper, the concepts of Volk (people) and its relation with Being and Time is studied. Also, education is investigated in order to bring up authentic Dasein on Heidegger's view. The exploration undertaken in this paper illustrates that the concept of Volk is not, in Heidegger's view, related to the biological features of a race, but to the mood of attunement to Being, which itself is determined by its historicity and its capacity to bring about both differentiation and order. In general, Heidegger's interpretation of work is based on his concept of ...