Overcoming Transhumanism: Education or Enhancement Towards the Overhuman?

Transhumanism promotes the application of emerging technologies and genetics in order to overcome the physical and cognitive limitations of the human species. In this article, the main question to be considered is the following: is Nietzsche's notion of educational self‐overcoming compatible with the idea of biotechnological self‐enhancement? After presenting some broad characteristics of transhumanist philosophy, the general line of reasoning in this article is based on two colliding interpretations of Nietzsche's ‘overhuman’ and its educational implications: Stefan Lorenz Sorgner's attempt to legitimise techno‐progressive aspirations through the ‘will‐to‐power‐ontology’ and Babette Babich's critique of transhumanism as a popular display of the ‘ascetic ideal’. In the final part, I argue that Nietzsche's post‐anthropology can only be regarded as a possible onto‐axiological legitimisation for a kind of transhumanism that would not aim at strengthening the tendency to approach human development from a solely technocratic point of view. I further conclude that the rise of biotechnological power demands a critical educational reflection that would effectively prevent the enclosure of the individual within the network of techno‐science.     

A Philosopher in the Classroom

This article picks up on John Elliott's interrelated interests in curriculum and philosophy of education and argues for the centrality of philosophy and indeed, philosophising, in action research. It offers a distinction between (i) philosophy of action research, which refers to the ideas rooted in epistemology, ethics and social philosophy which might underlie the idea and practice of action research, and (ii) philosophy in action research, which refers to the ways in which action researchers need to engage more self-consciously with philosophical questions. The two main parts of the article explore these two dimensions of the relationship more fully and, in the second part, with particular reference to Elliott's own writing.     

Cute,creepy and sublime unnamed childhood monstrosities

ABSTRACT

Strangers, Gods, and monsters are all names for the experience of alterity and otherness within and amongst us. We need monsters in our lives. In this paper we use philosophy as a method to explore language, developmental and cultural instabilities, and terrifying (and discursive) monstrosity located within children's literature and childhood contexts. Philosophy as a method serves as an engagement, an ethical relationship with monstrous thoughts, and as an opening to the philosophical thinking of everyday practices of childhood play (i.e., through objects, practices, language, text, and images). Alongside and through cute, creepy and sublime notions of monsters in children's literature children become monsters–monsters become children. We draw from Derrida's notions of hospitality and hostility and Deleuze and Guattari's deterritorialization of minor literature as well as from literature on monsters, monstrosities, and ugliness. We argue that different representations of childhood monstrosity can help educators and other adults to see the ‘productive’ in childhood otherness, to consider the always present ‘childhood undecidable’ (simultaneous presence of cute and creepy) and the generative in infinitely unknown and unrecognizable childhood objects and discourses.     

What is in a child’s hand? Prosthesis in Bernard Stiegler: Some implications for a future philosophy of childhood

Abstract

Prosthesis and the human hand have been terms used by various philosophers in order to describe the interaction that binds together the human being and the technical artefact – Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida being among the most important of these philosophers. In Bernard Stiegler's philosophy, however, these notions are quite important for another reason: they open up the possibility to rethink the child through the hand, which is, in some respects, the entry point into the human. With the hope of sketching the beginnings of a new philosophy of childhood, I study in this paper Stieglerian prosthesis, showing that it is at its heart an organology; namely a philosophy of the organs (physiological – as the human hand, and technical – as the pen). Then, I focus on some more aspects of these processes, underlining the importance of interiorization and exteriorization, but also suggesting an equally important process of figuration and metaphoricity that takes place within consciousness, above, and beneath it. In the last section of the paper, I revisit Stiegler's account of the transitional object in order to sketch a possible opening for forming a philosophy of childhood that takes into account not only memory and the brain, but also figuration and the child's hand.     

Children,Redemption and Remembrance in Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin wrote extensively on children and childhood, though this aspect of his work has hitherto received scant attention despite continuing and growing interest in his thought. This article makes explicit the connection between his acute observations of childhood and his distinctive messianic philosophy. The twin aspects of redemption in Benjamin's writings: remembrance and now‐time, as illustrated in Wim Wender's Wings of Desire, are explored in relation to the ‘task of childhood’. Benjamin asserts the emancipatory potential held within the development of historical consciousness, and leads us to question how our understanding of childhood can foster this potential     

从康德哲学到马克思哲学隐含的内在逻辑——论近代哲学人类学的构筑要素与延异路径

哲学人类学是以“探讨使人同其他所有存在物形成对照的基本本体论结构”为内容的理论,其在哲学史的发展中完成自身的理论建构。考察哲学人类学理论形成的历史,可以发现哲学人类学由“隐”到“显”的发展过程,发现从康德哲学到马克思哲学的历史发展中隐含着近代哲学人类学由构筑到延异的内在逻辑,而马克思哲学是对“人是目的”进行建构的现代人类学理论代表。以哲学人类学为背景分析马克思哲学,为深入领会马克思哲学的思想实质提供了重要依据。     

Early Childhood Educare: Seeking a theoretical framework in Vygotsky's work

This paper argues that there is no meaningful distinction between care and education for young children so that the early childhood field should be renamed early childhood educare. The predominant theoretical framework for early childhood philosophy and curriculum has been Piaget's theory. Piaget's theory describes development as determining current cognitive competence and influencing what children are capable of learning. Children are seen as natural scientists who investigate the world and thereby broaden their understanding. Teachers are expected to stand back and provide resources for children's autonomous learning but not to interfere with it. The paper argues that Vygotsky's theory as applied to the responsive social contexts provided in early childhood educare should be given more consideration because it gives more attention to the importance of the social and cultural context on children's thinking than Piaget. Vygotsky saw learning as driving development and the development of thinking as a shared process rather than an individual one. Children are capable of far more competent performance when they have assistance from adults in their zone of proximal development so adults take a reactive and participatory role. The paper discusses the role of language, the internalisation of interpersonal processes, the importance of intersubjectivity, the need for scaffolding in the zone of proximal development, and the role of both adult and peer tutors according to the author's interpretation of Vygotsky's theory.     

Redesigning an advanced master's degree for early childhood professionals in alignment with NBPTS and NAEYC standards

Abstract

This article describes the standards‐based redesign of one university's advanced master's degree program for early childhood practitioners. It discusses the philosophy and goals, degree components, and features that aligned with standards from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the National Association for the Education of Young Children guidelines for advanced degree programs.     

Philosophy of Education and the Historical

What is citizenship? This question goes back to the political philosophy of Aristotle, and how one answers it will be decisive in determining one's vision of political life. In the last ten to fifteen years, the question of citizenship has aroused a renewed set of extremely lively debates within political philosophy, and Iris Marion Young has certainly occupied an important place within these theoretical debates. In particular, Young—especially in her seminal article, Polity and Group Difference: A critique of the ideal of universal citizenship—has presented a sharp challenge to all political theorists who are in some broad sense intellectually nourished by the tradition of civic republicanism and who think about the theme of citizenship under the influence of civic‐republican conceptions. In essence, Young's argument is that the practices of contemporary liberal society show that the implicit normative promise contained in the idea of a universal citizen identity has not been fulfilled, and therefore we must rethink this notion from the ground up. The purpose of my essay is to review the arguments that constitute Young's challenge to the civic‐republican tradition, with a view to clarifying the following questions: Is Young's political theory aimed at a reconstruction of the idea of citizenship on a normatively more sound basis? Or does her project imply a rejection of the idea of citizenship, and its displacement by an alternative understanding of political membership?     

马克思的人类学批判及其终极关怀

晚年马克思不仅对自己所创立的哲学进行了经济学验证,而且还根据当时涌现的新经验和新材料,对人类学进行了批判性研究,并以当时俄国社会为考察对象,极为谨慎地提出了跨越“卡夫丁峡谷”的设想,从而体现了它对人类解放的终极关怀。     

Advancing Education's Autonomy through Looking Educationally at Philosophy

This article offers a general framework for considering education's autonomy and its implications for the relationship between education and philosophy. In it, Doron Yosef-Hassidim examines an initiative in Israel that calls for an autonomous secular public education and uses it as a context to clarify what education's autonomy means and to identify its major characteristics. To enhance the idea of education's autonomy, he further argues that education should not be subordinate to philosophy and that the question about being human must be kept open and educational. In particular, education's autonomy requires resisting the temptation of applying a philosophical framework about being human to education, even if the particular philosopher of education agrees with the philosophical framework. Finally, Yosef-Hassidim proposes a strategy for treating the question about being human as one that involves both the work of philosophers of education and practitioners in the classroom.     

Childhood and education in Jean-François Lyotard’s philosophy

The theme of childhood and education in Lyotard’s philosophy provides an interesting field of reflection combining education studies and continental philosophy. Childhood in Lyotard’s thought is mostly understood as infantia, a concept that appears towards the end of his work. The claim of this article is that childhood in Lyotard’s philosophy cannot be reduced to the late concept of infantia; looking at the recurring nature of this theme in his writings that is present from the beginning, as well as various figures under which it appears, pushes Lyotard’s readers to reconsider his work from a pluralist and interdisciplinary perspective.     

Constructivist Pedagogy and Symbolism: Vico,Cassirer, Piaget,Bateson

Constructivism is at the heart of a pedagogical philosophy going back to Vico, whose view of the interrelationship of the arts and sciences sought to reconstitute the classical paideia. The Vichian idea that human beings can only know the truth of what they themselves have made has theoretical and practical consequences for Vico's pedagogy and view of the university. Vico's ideas on education are extended in the modern period by such thinkers as Cassirer, Piaget and Bateson. At the basis of Cassirer's pedagogical philosophy is his theory of the symbol, the symbol being a universal and transcendent modality in culture. The result of this unifying theory is that symbolism, which is pervasive across the disciplines, provides a moral and ethical means for integrating communication about teaching. Cassirer's thought is compatible with Piaget's, which emphasizes the pluralism of experience and the role of dynamic learning in the construction of meaningful order. Piaget's constructivism assumes that an operational bridge exists to link together the hard sciences, the human sciences, and the historical disciplines. This systems view of epistemological matters is similar in many respects to the one advanced by Gregory Bateson, which is explored in the paper's final section.     

邓小平民本思想之所见

民本思想是我国传统哲学思想的核心理念,也是整个邓小平思想理论体系的核心理念。邓小平民本思想哲学内涵丰富,其中最重要的精神就是对民本理论不懈探索。邓小平民本思想是马克思主义哲学中国化的重要成果,也是新中国思想领域的集中体现。在新世纪,持续加强邓小平民本思想的科学研究,积极推进民本理论的丰富发展,仍然是我们当代哲学研究的重要工作之一。     

TRANSFORMING COLIABORATION BETWEEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND ONE EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM

Abstract

For 10 years a group of early childhood teacher educators in Oregon have been developing a portfolio articulation system that students can take with them as they move through the educational sequence from high school through university. This article reports on the group's efforts to determine content of such a portfolio and how those contents should be scored. The group based their recommendations on commonalities among programs and samples of students’ work. The article also describes the contents of an articulation portfolio which includes evidence of and scores for the student's ability to observe and record children's behavior, plan for instruction, develop a philosophy of early childhood education and teach children. In addition, there is discussion of what was learned during this lengthy enterprise including the realization that articulation needs to respond to what students know and are able to do, not what courses they have taken. Readers are also given information on how to obtain a copy of the portfolio guidelines.     

康德形而上学奠基的路径与意义分析

分析了康德形而上学奠基的前提和路径,指出基于知识的相对性,形而上学自然也是相对的,"相对"意味着不断被超越,不同时期的哲学家从不同的角度对形而上学做了种种阐释,由此形成了形而上学不同的奠基方式。认为康德的批判哲学构成了西方哲学史上一个重要的转折点,他用人类学的方式为形而上学奠基,从形而上学的角度去探讨人生存在的终极性问题。     

“社会场”:社会能量的分布空间——《社会场论》读后感

张小军的《社会场论》嵌入了中国古代哲学、古希腊哲学、马克思的政治经济学、近现代社会学、人类学以及物理学的前沿理论等思想要素,实现了科学与哲学的交融及自然与社会的贯通,因而是一部探讨自然科学与社会科学交叉联结逻辑关系的重要理论著作.     

走进《1844年经济学哲学手稿》——论马克思对劳动的存在论阐明

马克思在《1844年经济学哲学手稿》中的一个重大思想成果就是对劳动的存在论的重新阐明。这一阐明不仅消解了传统哲学对劳动的抽象思辨的理解。而且也堵塞了对人的本质作人类学或知性科学的理解，同时也本质重要地开启了现代西方哲学的全部问题域。深刻领会马克思的这一思想成果，不仅有助于厘清马克思哲学革命发生之进路．而且有助于理解当下社会之生活。     

Socially constructed readiness for school

Educational researchers, early childhood educators, and parents often think of readiness for school as a measurable child characteristic. This ignores the social process by which readiness is used to group, rank, and compare children and the variability in the term's use from community to community. This study proposes that readiness for school should be conceived as being “socially constructed.” Using a conceptual framework based on Vygotskian theory and cultural anthropology, we develop the concept of “activity setting” as a social process in which cognitive processes and meaning structures develop. The emerging meaning of readiness is examined by using an activity‐setting analysis in three different communities and kindergarten settings.     

MacIntyre's Moral Theory and the Possibility of an Aretaic Ethics of Teaching

In this paper, I reconstruct Alasdair MacIntyre's aretaic, practical philosophy, drawing out its implications for professional ethics in general and the practice of teaching in particular. After reviewing the moral theory as a whole, I examine MacIntyre's notion of internal goods. Defined within the context of practices, such goods give us reason to reject the very idea of applied ethics. Being goods for the practitioner, they suggest that the eudaimonia of the practitioner is central to professional ethics. In this way, MacIntyre's moral theory helps us recover the untimely question, how does teaching contribute to the flourishing of the teacher?