构建、消解、解蔽——现代西方哲学对传统美学的诘难

柏拉图对“美是什么”这一哲学问题的开启,是对“美的本质”哲学追踪的历史性揭幕。由此,西方美学开始成为体系性的美学。分析美学放弃了对“美是什么”问题的理论思辨,试图从其繁复的语言分析中消解美的本质。而海德格尔在早期就为美学奠定了一个存在论的基础,“美的本质”等经典问题不再有意义,“美”只是一个存在的问题。     

The Inner (and Unavoidable?) Violence of Reason: Re‐reading Heidegger via Education

Since Plato, Western thought has framed knowing as a method within ‘some realm of what is’ and a predetermined ‘sphere of objects’. The roots and the consequences of this stance towards reason and truth were noted by Heidegger, who equates the history of Western thought with the history of metaphysics. Since Plato, truth has relied on definition, hierarchy and mastery. Discourse on the truth begins to be discourse on the limits of things and, thus, on who is able to set these limits and discourse. This dominant position erases its own traces, presents itself as unique and unavoidable, and excludes all other ways of thinking. This exclusion includes violence, and this violence is not merely a philosophical matter. It is written in the history of the West, which is a history that includes conquest, genocide and war. However, we can also identify in Heidegger ways to transcend this inner violence by returning to the originating stance towards truth, namely, truth as aletheia, or world disclosure. This article provides the groundwork to argue that Heidegger's thought, based on a call for existential responsibility, requires education to remake our existence.     

Whose confession? Which tradition? (A preliminary critique of Penny Thompson, 2004)

What does Penny Thompson really want? Reading her article in BJRE 26 (1) proved a baffling experience: it clearly wanted to say something, and to say it passionately, yet signally failed to do so. It fails largely because it lacks an argument; there seems also to be conceptual muddle at its heart. A fuller critique will need to attend to Thompson’s reading of religious education’s history, particularly to her use of evidence—but that is a story for another night. Consequently, this brief critique has at its core four questions to elicit clarity where at present there is none: First, does Penny Thompson want so to revision religious education in community schools that she and other aspirants to ‘Christian confessional religious education’ may freely work to convert young people to ‘Christianity’ and to nurture them in a Christian tradition? Second, in what sense, or senses, does Thompson want readers to understand her phrase, ‘the truth of the Christian faith?’ Third, in whose confession and in which tradition does Thompson want this Christian confessional religious education to be rooted? Fourth, is Penny Thompson willing to allow Christian teachers to present alternative understandings of Christianity, critical of her (implied) view? These questions are preceded by reflection on the form of her article’s argument and on its use of ‘confess’ and its cognates.     

Mehr als eine Mathematikstunde: Platons Menon

For the past two hundred years in German educational science the ‘maths lesson’ of Plato’s Meno has received attention – always to be celebrated as a masterpiece of Socratic teaching. Yet, by taking only the ‘maths lesson’ into account the negative ending of Meno is overlooked. Thus, because generally the ‘maths lesson’ is used as an example for a positive Socratic maieutic teaching method, a second possible medical, ‘therapeutic’ link between a midwife, with which Socrates compares himself in Plato’s Theaetetus, and a torpedo fish, with which he equates himself in Meno, is usually overlooked.     

Human Freedom and the Philosophical Attitude

Abstract

Attempts to describe the essential features of the Western philosophical tradition can often be characterized as ‘boundary work’, that is, the attempt to create, promote, attack, or reinforce specific notions of the ‘philosophical’ in order to demarcate it as a field of intellectual inquiry. During the last century, the dominant tendency has been to delineate the discipline in terms of formal methods, techniques, and concepts and a given set of standard problems and alternative available solutions (although this element has been both present and at times highly influential at least since Plato). One vital feature of the philosophical tradition that has played a certain rather subterranean but nonetheless indispensable role, which I will discuss in this article, is that of repeatedly and stringently calling into question the conditions of its own possibility. The Cartesian tradition (including Kant, Husserl, Popper and Weber) shares with the anti-philosophers (say, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, but even the later Wittgenstein) the insight that this questioning itself is and has always been a problem, perhaps the deepest problem, for philosophy. The idea that one has the right, even the responsibility, to pose questions that are non-standard, not comme il faut, perhaps even taboo, lay at the very heart of notions such as ‘the pursuit of truth’, ‘vita contemplativa’, and ‘philosophy as work on oneself’. On what grounds can one possibly assert such a right? In the Western tradition, it has most often been associated with a form of genuine doubt founded in deep engagement with some subject matter, i.e. the notion that one has a ‘problem’ demanding that one take responsibility for one’s beliefs and thoughts, both morally and logically. It seems to me that the meaning of this most basic attitude is something that each generation must rediscover for itself; indeed, recreate for itself in a new environment and under new conditions. Thus, the blindness of the past, in this self-understanding of philosophy, need not bind or blind us in the future. To the contrary, the European intellectual tradition can be seen as providing a series of perspicuous representations of intermittently faltering and flourishing attempts at asserting the viability of the idea of human freedom as essentially bound up with the pursuit of truth. As such, it is of necessity open to perpetual revision (even when it resists it).     

诗论：喻体的选择——从柏拉图到华兹华斯

从柏拉图到华兹华斯,西方诗论历经两千多年。在其漫长的建构过程中,围绕“什么是诗”这一命题展开的讨论从未停止。柏拉图以客观唯心主义立场把诗界定为“模仿的模仿”,华兹华斯以情感立论说诗是“强烈情感的自然外溢”。然而,无论诗的源头是出自“眼睛”还是出自“心灵”,对“什么是诗”的回答都不约而同地采取了变换喻体的方法。本文旨在揭示五彩滨纷的诗论背后隐伏着的隐喻思维。     

De l'Ingénieur Europeen: Le point de vue d'un industriel français

1992 will witness a big market for European engineers: but what kind of engineers? From what kind of schools? With what kind of diploma? What kind of freedom will there be for working as an engineer? Some answers are given from the French point of view. So many differences exist between European countries, that a good definition of ‘engineer’ is necessary. The French Commission for the National title of engineer (CTI) is very clear about the rules for becoming an ‘engineer’, and the need to avoid confusion in the European market and help firms. Good relationships are needed between ‘les écoles d'ingenieurs’, universities and professionals, to realize homogeneous courses and training throughout Europe.     

The coming of a classical world

Quantum theory’s unusual predictions stem from its basic formalism which involves concepts like the wavefunction or probabilityamplitudes instead of probabilities. Many serious doubts have been raised about quantum theory’s connection with perceived classical dynamics. How does quantum mechanics, with all its strange ideas, unfold to give us the ‘reality’ of the familiar physical world? What is the connection between theclassical and thequantum! If quantum mechanics is, indeed, the fundamental theory of nature, as is widely accepted, then how does it explainclassicality! In the following, some of the fascinating conceptual problems of quantum mechanics are highlighted. The ‘environment-induceddecoherence’ approach is then discussed as one practical attempt at explaining the emergence of a classical world from an underlying quantum substrate     

The ‘Third Wave’: education and the ideology of parentocracy

In this paper it will be argued that we are entering a ‘third wave’ in the socio‐historical development of British education and that similar trends are also evident in the USA, Australia and New Zealand. The ‘first wave’ can be characterised by the rise of mass schooling for the working classes in the late nineteenth century. The ‘second wave’ involved a shift from the provision of education based upon what Dewey called the “feudal dogma of social predestination” to one organised on the basis of individual merit and achievement. What is distinct about the ‘third wave’ is the move towards a system whereby the education a child receives must conform to the wealth and wishes of parents rather than the abilities and efforts of pupils. In other words, we have witnessed a shift away from the ‘ideology of meritocracy’ to what I will call the ‘ideology of parentocracy’. This paper will consider the evidence to support this conclusion and examine its sociological significance.

     

Stillness at Detroit's racial divide: A perspective on Detroit's school desegregation court order—1970–1989

Detroit's school desegregation case,Bradley v. Milliken, marked the turning point away from the legacy ofBrown v. the Board of Education. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1974 rejected a cross-district plan to involve 53 school districts. Instead, a Detroit-only plan emphasizing education components was ordered. Looking back on the 19-year history of the case, what has its impact been on Detroit and the nation? Are the courts now left without any effective remedy for separate and unequal? The significance, purpose, and undercurrents of theMilliken case are here explored in search of answers to these questions.     

The Implications of the 'New Literacy Studies' for Literacy Education

This paper deals with the following questions:

• 1 The ‘problem’: what is the ‘Literacy Debate’ and why do such apparently arcane accounts of language and literacy have such a high profile in popular media?
• 2 What are the New Literacy Studies (NLS) and what are the new understandings of language and of literacy on which NLS are based?
• 3 . What are the implications for literacy education?

     

自传体叙事中的自我欺骗: 个体的自我认同策略

自我欺骗一直以来是心理学界的研究热点。然而,历经几十年的研究,自我欺骗完整的认知加工过程仍不明确。综合比较前人在自我欺骗前提条件、内部加工和结果状态等方面的相关研究结果,一个关于自我欺骗认知加工过程的模型得以建构：在自我欺骗动机的驱动和认知模糊性的掩蔽下,个体可以对相关信息进行偏见的加工; 在粗略加工的信息搜索和感知阶段,个体对不受欢迎的信息进行排斥; 在精细加工的信息评估、理解和存储阶段,个体为受欢迎的信息分配更多的认知资源; 通过这些加工偏见使不受欢迎的信息得不到合理加工,从而导致个体逐渐从相信不受欢迎信息支持的正面信念向相信受欢迎信息支持的反面信念转变; 最后,根据支持正面和反面信念证据的数量比例,个体形成无意识自我欺骗或有意识自我欺骗状态。这一完整的认知加工模型不仅可以帮助研究者们看到自我欺骗认知加工过程的全貌,为研究者们更好地研究自我欺骗提供参考,还能扩展该领域的研究范围,引导该领域的研究向深度加工机制发展。     

价值理论的拓展与创新

何谓价值？它是怎样产生的？它有什么意义和作用？什么是价值理论？怎么认识价值理论的哲学意义、经济学意义以及现实意义？这是人们最想弄清楚的概念。因为在现实生活中，价值是一个复合型的概念，它既包含了最本质的哲学意义，也包含了经济学的意义。人们有时候是从哲学的意义来探讨价值问题，比如“人生价值”；有时候是从经济学的意义来探讨价值问题，比如“商品价值”。所以探讨价值问题涉及三个方面的问题：一是价值的本质、属性和构成；二是价值经济意义；三是现代意义的价值评价和运用。这就是文章所要探讨的问题。     

Conceptual ecologies for educational research through Deleuze,Guattari and Whitehead

This article will explore the increasing interest in the application of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Alfred North Whitehead to educational research, for example, as a conceptual underpinning for inquiry in the new materialisms, and/or educational posthumanism. The exploration of this paper is complicated by the fact that Deleuze and Guattari changed their philosophical position in their dual publications, with, for example, their last book: What is Philosophy? representing a substantial departure from their rhizomatic work in, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. This article will explain the changes in position with reference to the mapping of conceptual ecologies that Deleuze and Guattari are describing through their philosophy, and not dualism. Concept creation appears in the analysis of Western philosophy in: What is Philosophy? and as the job of philosophy. In contrast, A Thousand Plateaus presents a whole raft of interrelated concepts that help explain the connections between capitalism and schizophrenia, but do not present ‘concept creation’ as a positive task as such, even though one could impute that they are successfully doing it. This article will explain these changes in positioning of Deleuze and Guattari as a mode of sophisticated conceptual ecology, which takes into account the work that they want their concepts to perform. Transcribed to educational research, ‘concept creation’ is an importantly non-methodological task, which is augmented and expanded with reference to the metaphysics of Whitehead’s process philosophy (a non-method), and how it has been taken up, for example, by Isabelle Stengers in terms of research positioning and science.     

The third place from truth: Plato's paradoxical attack on writing

This paper examines Eric Havelock's view of Plato's works as a turning point in the transition from a predominantly oral society to a predominantly written culture. There is a paradox between the influence of written abstraction on Plato's thought and the Platonic attack upon writing in the Phaedrus. Havelock's consideration of the influence of written technology upon Plato's thought is outlined and is contrasted with the view of writing expressed by Socrates in the Phaedrus and elsewhere. The essential paradox in associating Plato with the written tradition is that Plato criticizes the written word in the Phaedrus for the same faults attributed to the poets in the Republic. The dimensions of the paradox are considered along five lines. First, it is clear that writing and abstract thought are related in Havelock's view, and yet Plato attacks writing for being “the third place from truth.”; Secondly, memory is associated with the oral tradition which Plato attacks so strongly in the Republic, and yet memory is vital to Plato's epistemology. A third paradox is that Plato condemns the self‐identification of the individual with the poets of the oral tradition, and yet the dialectic which is the approved approach to truth takes place in oral dialogue. In addition, while Plato clearly expected his attack upon poetry to be unpopular, there is evidence that his attack on writing—on the same epistemological grounds—was an accurate reflection of popular sentiment. Finally, the poets appear to have been singled out in the Republic for special attention due to their relationship with the oral tradition, but the rhetoricians, logographers, and sophists associated with writing are criticized upon the same grounds as the poets and rhapsodes. The study concludes that these apparent paradoxes are consistent with Plato's pivotal position in the transition from a predominantly oral to a predominantly written culture as outlined by Havelock. Plato's paradoxical attack upon writing provides a remarkable paradigm of the employment of the strengths of both the written and the oral traditions, and urges us by example to consider the impact of modern media upon the quality of our thought.     

The televised mediated trial: Formal and substantive characteristics

Mediated trials are distinct from trials observed in person. The author argues that trials observed face‐to‐face are distinct from televised mediated trials. Because television “reformats”; the events it covers, the medium affects what viewers ultimately understand the legal process to be. The authors posit that televised trials should be approached as a media event that represents a discrete genre of television programming, the televised mediated trial. Generic features of face‐to‐face trials and televised mediated trials affect what is communicated to an audience. Implications for public knowledge of the legal system are then discussed.     

Philosophical debates on curriculum,inequalities and social justice

Abstract

The paper provides an historical but critical context for examining the relation of the pursuit of greater equality in schooling to the development of curriculum. This requires a brief account of what one means by the principle of equality, before showing the different ways in which there have been curriculum responses underpinned by philosophical understandings which need to be examined closely. These different ways are explained in terms of: ? ‘rational curriculum planning’ with its detailed definition of ‘aims, objectives, methods and evaluation’—and thereby a ‘science of teaching’;

? ‘forms of knowledge’ or ‘realms of meaning’ to enable all pupils to have a basic understanding of the physical, social, and moral worlds they inhabit;

? the pursuit of enquiry through which, for all learners, understanding is enlarged;

? provision of common curriculum experience as a basis for citizenship;

? taking diversity seriously; and

? equalisation of opportunities through a common system of national standards and assessments.

However, in the light of greater government involvement in the minutiae of curriculum reform, mainly through changes in qualifications and examinations, there is clearly a need to ask what sort of evidence is relevant to ‘what works’.     

柏拉图哲学思想产生的社会根基和思想根基及对后世的影响

迄今为止,国内外对于柏拉图哲学思想的研究主要集中在其哲学思想的某一方面,且研究成果零散而不集中,缺乏系统性。鉴于此,该文从分析柏拉图哲学思想产生的社会根基、思想根基出发,力求从辩证的维度综合系统的论述和公允评价柏拉图哲学思想对后世的多侧面的积极影响和消极影响。     

Slowness as a Virtue

This essay explores three practices commonly discussed in relation to each other: slow writing, slow reading and slow philosophy. These have close connections, and all of these are joined by practices of philosophical teaching and dialogue, which can also be carried out in a ‘slow’ manner. ‘Slow’ here means careful, deliberate and perspicacious—which might be said to be the prime virtues of philosophy. In this essay I want to explore what slowness means in the context of our intellectual work, concluding that slowness can be seen as a kind of virtue. Like other virtues (for example, honesty), more and more of a good thing is not always for the better. One can be too slow, just as one can be too fast, and part of the enactment of this quality entails discernment in judging what kind of slowness, and how much slowness, is suited to a particular task. Context matters, and our choices about slowness need to be viewed in relation to specific circumstances.