Emmanuel Levinàs and Matthew Lipman: Towards a Critique of a Totalizing Tendency in Formal Education

Authors

  • Peter Paul Ejera Elicor Ateneo de Davao University - Philippines

Keywords:

Emmanuel Levinàs, Education, Matthew Lipman, Totality

Abstract

In this article, I argue that education should neither function simply as a social apparatus that “grooms” individuals for their future societal roles nor merely supply the need of the global labor market. Rather, borrowing from Levinàs’ ethics, education must ultimately respond to the call of justice that springs from the proper recognition of the alterity of the other, and the responsibility that goes along with it. I further argue that a totalizing tendency of Formal Education occurs on two-level interactions: a.) the basic interaction between all the participants in the education system, and b.) the interaction of the students with the school curricula. It is in this context that I introduce Matthew Lipman’s version of the Community of Inquiry, which, I propose, is one of the many effective pedagogical practices that respond to the call for an ethically driven Formal Education.

Author Biography

Peter Paul Ejera Elicor, Ateneo de Davao University - Philippines

Philosophy Department

Philosophy Instructor 

References

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________. Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority. trans. Alphonso Lingis (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1979).

________, The Levinas Reader, ed. Sean Hand (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1989).

Lipman, Matthew, Thinking in Education 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003)

“Philosophy for Children by Matthew Lipman,” Youtube video, 56:00, from BBC Documentary 1990, posted by Pascal Lacroix, March 29, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp-8lI8h7gg.

“Philosophy for Kids: Sparking a Love of Learning by Dr. Sara Goering” Youtube video, 10:42, from TedxOverlake, posted by Tedx Videos, June 30, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DLzXAjscXk.

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Published

2017-02-11

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 2 (2016): July - December 2016

Section

Articles

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