Reclaiming our moral agency through healing: a call to moral,social, environmental activists

This paper makes the case that environmental education needs to be taken up as a moral education to the extent that we see the connection between harm and destruction in the environment and harm and destruction within human individuals and their relationship, and proceeds to show this connection by introducing the key notion of human alienation and its psychological factors of wounding, dissociation or split, self and other oppression and exploitation, all of which result in compromised moral agency. To this end, the paper further makes the case that we need to replace the culture of alienation with a culture of healing and reclamation of fundamental humanity manifest as compassion and wisdom, and presents an ideal of moral agency that would emerge when all parts and dimensions of one’s being—body–mind–heart–energetics—are aligned, attuned and integrated, having healed from the body–mind split, mind–heart split, body–spirit split and mind–matter split. Concepts and imagery borrowed from Asian philosophies, such as Buddhism and Daoism, are offered as illustrative resources for the project of reclaiming uncompromised moral agency and its manifestation through compassion and wisdom. These concepts include hungry ghosts, bodhicitta, sunyata and wu-wei.     

论陶渊明的生命智慧

陶渊明的生命智慧主要表现在“天人合一”生命观下自我心灵世界的救赎,这可从“飞鸟意象与诗意回归”和“饮酒意趣下的渐近自然”等方面获得解释。而最重要的是方法论上,陶渊明为了拯救自我苦难焦灼的人生,采取了具有心灵疗救意味的求索探寻,即安时处顺、审美自足信念的思考;自由闲静、任真自适的心态定位;躬耕陇亩、自耕自资生活方式的选择。所有这一切最终使得陶渊明成为了一个人生的智者。     

Learning from and for one another: An inquiry on symbiotic learning

Abstract

Symbiosis is a biological phenomenon in which two dissimilar organisms coexist for mutual subsistence. The concept of symbiosis can be employed to foster mutual learning. In this paper, the idea of symbiotic learning is explored. To achieve this purpose, the concept of symbiosis is interpreted from a philosophical perspective, which is primarily derived from ecological philosophies such as Gestalt thinking, philosophy of coevolution, Chinese ecological wisdom from Buddhism and Daoism, and Kurokawa’s idea of the philosophy of symbiosis. These philosophies are essential for considering symbiotic learning. Furthermore, the significance and application of symbiotic learning are discussed. Specifically, this paper addresses the effect of symbiosis, demands of heterogeneous cultures, and scope of symbiotic learning. Moreover, this paper investigated the types of symbiotic learning in Chinese classics, including Xue Ji, Confucius’ Analects, and Zhuangzi. Finally, through the idea conveyed in Zhuangzi, I argue that a supreme symbiotic interaction is not maintained in purpose-built conduct but is bridged by forgetting in the mind.     

Confucius’ Junzi (君子): The conceptions of self in Confucian

Confucius reinvented the concept of Junzi （君子）, an idea of personhood which invites continual assessment whether the concerns people were once devoted to are worthy of ongoing devotion, and how they make a place in the world—a place where they hope they can exercise some governance in their lives. Junzi （君子）is a agent, and has the properties and powers to monitor their lives, and to contribute to societal transformation. Cultivating a person is centrally involved in the politics of subjectivity, in forming and constituting the self because self always reflects the bounds and conventions of its history. The term Junzi （君子）is harnessed to make the individual a significant element for the state through the exercise of a form of power. So this kind of self-mastery incorporates notions of governmentality, freedom and the historical–social context to understandings of the self. So if we understand that the essence of civil society consists in agency-building self-transformation, there is ample evidence that Confucius was committed to reconstructing moral agency and civil society in a way that would be characteristically Confucian. Junzi (君子) is the case in point.     

Adaptation and Self‐Determination in English Primary Schools

abstract

New government policies have to be mediated through teachers. Research among some teachers in primary schools revealed a number of creative adaptations to the National Curriculum. Some were strongly ‘resisting’ some elements. Where conditions were favourable, this developed into ‘appropriation’. A powerful aid towards appropriation can be ‘resourcing‘—ways in which the teacher role can be enhanced. At times, the teacher's work might be ‘enriched’ by the National Curriculum. However, at other times, another teacher might be forced to ‘re‐route’, and retire from teaching. Running through all these modes of adaptation is the interconnecting theme of self‐determination. Four aspects of this—self‐defence, self‐reinforcement, self‐realisation and self‐renewal—are revealed in the adaptations. The changes have been cathartic for teachers’ sense of self, but some, at least, are emerging stronger than before, whether they are still teaching or not.     

关于中国传统孝文化内涵特征及其功能的思考

孝文化是中国传统文化的核心,是小农经济模式和宗法制度共同孕育的产物,其影响至深至远。传统孝文化的内涵丰富,其特征可描述为自然性、推及性、无我性、义务性和实践性,这一文化在传统社会的稳定与和谐中发挥了重要作用。     

Can we measure practical wisdom?

ABSTRACT

Wisdom, long a topic of interest to moral philosophers, is increasingly the focus of social science research. Philosophers have historically been concerned to develop a rationally defensible account of the nature of wisdom and its role in the moral life, often inspired in various ways by virtue theoretical accounts of practical wisdom (phronesis). Wisdom scientists seek to, among other things, define wisdom and its components so that we can measure them. Are the measures used by wisdom scientists actually measuring what philosophers have in mind when they discuss practical wisdom? I argue that they are not. Contemporary measures of wisdom and its components may pick out some necessary prerequisites of practical wisdom, but they do not measure a philosophically plausible practical wisdom or its components. After explaining the argument and defending it against objections, I consider its implications. Should wisdom scientists ignore the philosophical conception of practical wisdom in favor of other conceptions, revise their methods to try to measure it, or continue the interdisciplinary study of practical wisdom without expecting to measure it? I make a preliminary argument for the third option.     

Education for radio

Aristotle discussed various forms of rationality in the Organon and other works. Aristotle held that in making judgments, the soul used five means— intelligence, episteme (scientific knowledge), sophia (theoretical wisdom), techne (art), and phronesis (practical wisdom). The nature of rhetoric as a techne employed in persuasion and grounded in probabilities distinguishes it from discourse in natural science, metaphysics, and philosophy. Aristotle's comparative study of the reasoning used by each of these means enables us to recognize rhetoric's uniqueness.     

On engaging with others: A Wittgensteinian approach to (some) problems with deeply held beliefs

Abstract

My starting point for this paper is a problem in critical thinking pedagogy—the difficult of bringing students to a point where they are able, and motivated, critically to evaluate their own deeply held beliefs. I first interrogate the very idea of a deeply held belief, drawing upon Wittgenstein’s idea of a framework belief—a belief that forms part of a ‘scaffolding’ for our thoughts—or of a belief that functions as a hinge around which other beliefs pivot. I then examine the role of deeply held beliefs, thus conceived, in our ways of being in the world, exploring the extent to which engagement with others whose deeply held beliefs differ from ours may be possible through imaginative ‘travel’. Finally, I reflect upon the extent to which these imaginative moments also offer up opportunities for critical reflection upon our own deeply held beliefs and, thus, the possibility of changing or adapting those beliefs.     

Reality,Imagination and Art-On Wallace Stevens’s Art of Poetry

Wallace Stevens is a distinguished American modern poet.He come up with the idea of Supreme Fiction,in which he holds poetry as the union of reality and imagination,brings power,order,and wisdom to the world,which features his work with philosophy and poetic wisdom.Stevens’s perspectives on poetry writing and the needs of spiritual enrichment share some similarities with Friedrich Nietzsche on art and aesthetics-Art is the final form of sublimation of the souls of human beings.     

“A Nightmare Land, A Place of Death”: An Exploration of the Moon as a Motif in Hergé’s Destination Moon (1953) and Explorers on the Moon (1954)

This article analyses the symbolic meaning of the Moon in two bande dessinée books from the Tintin series, Hergé’s Destination Moon (Objectif Lune, 1953) and its sequel Explorers on the Moon (On a Marché sur la Lune, 1954). It argues that these two volumes stand out in the series for their graphic, narrative and philosophical emphasis on both intellectual achievement and physical death. The Moon, as a goal of modern science and a traditional artistic symbol, is made to celebrate the human mind. But Hergé also makes it a dangerous no man’s land, where human beings are made to understand the limitations of their physical abilities. The Moon emphasises the distortion between human dreams of grandeur and the concrete impossibility of their realisation, and the threats they pose to corporeality. As a result, the article suggests that the Moon trip can be seen as a modern re-enactment of the mythological journey to Hell, as the works of the human mind are constantly thwarted by the risk of physical death.     

Emerson’s Nature as an Early Manifestation of the Biological Sublime

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s first essay, Nature, has been viewed as a reconciliation of the world of nature with the world of mind. A close analysis shows that Emerson was in fact attempting to come to terms with human fragility in a unique way by delineating the point at which the worldly and the transcendental are demarcated. Because nature as we normally apprehend it merely displays a physical remainder, an alternative way of coping with grief is to change the very way we apprehend nature itself. Moreover, the way forward is not merely to change our perceptions, but truly to conform ourselves with the natural workings of the universe in a manner that has been forgotten, obliterated or never even previously conceived. In short, Nature can be reconsidered as an early example of the biological sublime.     

庄子视界中的儒家之“修身”思想研究

在庄子看来,孔子注重修身,认为修身应修心（或修内）,内心应无机巧,应忘却仁义礼智,让功名利禄及生死不入于心,做到“心斋”与“坐忘”,以虚静之心与道相合。孔子还认为修身应处理好心、物之关系,即修己而顺物;修己,进而化人;化人而达到治天下。且以修心为本,修心乃顺物、化人、治理天下之前提;修心之目的为处好己与物、天下之关系（或修外）。孔子还谈到修内与修外之关系,他以为应该以无心的态度中立于修内与修外之间,不偏重于任何一方。但庄子以为至人无须修心,则更无修心之目的。至人无心而任自然之性,逍遥于道德之乡。至人更无须修外。     

试析王艮的修身思想及其特色

修身思想是王艮学说中最为重要的内容之一.王艮站在心学的立场上,以天地万物依于己,提出了关于修身的理论学说.他以“身本”作为其修身思想的理论基础、以“正己”与“安身”作为其修身实践的根本途径,以“成圣”作为其修身理想的终极追求.在这三个层面的统一中,彰显出其修身思想中既张扬道德理想,又依托于感性生命的时代特色.     

Structuralism’s relevance in a post-structural era: Re-visiting research on multicultural curricular studies

At the current historical juncture in which differences and inequalities are surfacing greater than ever in the world, societies, and schools, the main goal of this essay is to revisit the aspects of structuralism that can potentially contribute productively to understanding the invisible structures and forces that everyone carries (mostly unknowingly) with them at all times and in all places including in multicultural curricular and social justice work. By doing so, this essay also attempts to dispute with liberal humanistic notions of the self (teachers and students) in multicultural curricular studies that continues to support the dominant framework of curriculum. This essay is grounded on the idea that progressive change is predicated on (although never guaranteed by) uncovering and understanding as fully as possible the social, political, and economic organization of the world, which is always mediated by individual selves who are located within the world in specific ways.     

Cultivating humanity or educating the human? Two options for education in the knowledge age

Ever since the idea of the ‘knowledge society’ came into circulation, there have been discussions about what the term empirically might mean and normatively should mean. In the literature we can find a rather wide spectrum, ranging from a utilitarian interpretation of the knowledge society as a knowledge economy, via a more humanistic conception of the knowledge society as a knowledge sharing society, up to an explicitly political interpretation of the knowledge society as a knowledge democracy. Although in theory there is a wide range of interpretations and manifestations, in practice there has been a strong convergence towards the idea of the knowledge society as a knowledge economy. On this interpretation the particular task for education is seen as that of the production of flexible lifelong learners who are able to adjust and adapt to the ever-changing conditions of global capitalism. In this paper I raise the question how we might conceive of the educational task in light of the particular expectations that come from such an interpretation of the knowledge society. Against the idea that an adequate response requires that educators focus on the cultivation of the human being’s humanity, I challenge the humanistic underpinnings of the idea of education as cultivation. Instead, I suggest a different direction that moves the educational task away from the cultivation of the self towards the exposure towards the world.     

New Dimensions to Psychosocial Development in Traditionally Aged College Students

Why do so many traditionally aged college students engage in inappropriate behaviors, even when they are smart enough to know better? To answer this question, Gregory S. Blimling looks at some of the latest neuroscience research and, in doing so, introduces a new dimension to understanding psychosocial development in college students—developing the capacity for self‐regulatory cognitive control.     

On the Meanings of Self‐Regulation: Digital Humanities in Service of Conceptual Clarity

Self‐regulation is of interest both to psychologists and to teachers. But what the word means is unclear. To define it precisely, two studies examined the American Psychological Association's system of controlled vocabulary—specifically, the 447 associated terms it presents—and used techniques from the Digital Humanities to identify 88 closely related concepts and six broad conceptual clusters. The resulting analyses show how similar ideas are interrelated: self‐control, self‐management, self‐observation, learning, social behavior, and the personality constructs related to self‐monitoring. A full‐color network map locates these concepts and clusters relative to each other. It also highlights some of the interests of different audiences, which can be described heuristically using two axes that have been labeled abstract versus practical and self‐oriented versus other‐oriented.     

Writing the Self: Wittgenstein,Confession and Pedagogy

In this paper I investigate ‘the confessional’ as an aspect of Wittgenstein's style both as a mode of philosophising and as a mode of ‘writing the self’, tied explicitly to pedagogical practices. There are strong links between Wittgenstein's confessional mode of philosophising and his life—for him philosophy is a way of life —and interesting theoretical connections between confessional practices and pedagogy, usefully explored in the writings of the French philosopher, Michel Foucault. The Investigations provides a basis and springboard for understanding the notion of ‘writing the self’ as a pedagogical practice which encourages a confessional mode compelling us to tell the truth about ourselves and, thus, creating the conditions for ethico‐poetical self‐constitution.     

(Re)framing a philosophical and epistemological framework for teaching and learning in STEM: Emerging pedagogies for complexity

Today’s learners are engaging in study where access to knowledge is easier than it ever has been in human history. Rapid advancement of technology and the increasing ease with which communication and interaction can occur has dramatically changed the landscape in which teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) operate. The contemporary skills that students are required to possess include inter alia problem solving, creativity, teamwork abilities, communication skills and emotional intelligence. Despite the universal acceptance of their importance, these skills are commonly cited as underdeveloped and in addition, are still accompanied by outmoded ‘traditional’ forms of teaching and assessment. While the approaches of twentieth-century education were successful in developing knowledge stores, the ubiquity of access to knowledge—coupled with the constantly changing nature of the world today—requires alternative conceptions of teaching and learning. This article focuses primarily on an exploration of learning metaphors and teaching with the overall lens of creating self-regulated and furthermore, self-determined learners. The article begins with an exploration of learning in STEM education and a critique of the pedagogical perspective, discussing why this epistemology may be insufficient for contemporary STEM learning. The article then considers an alternative and potentially more contemporary notion; the emergent pedagogic space. The article presents a theoretical model to conceptualise learning in STEM education, with the goal of informing both practice and research. The realisation of this proposed emergent pedagogical space is explored through an applied case study from a design and technology context.