The Kantian idea of hope – Bridging the gap between our imperfection and our duty to perfect ourselves

Abstract

This journal recently published a special issue on Kant, evil, moral perfection and education. The essays included in the special issue discussed the vulnerably and imperfection of human beings and the role of education as facilitating such beings in their pursuit of moral perfection. The contribution of this article is to put forward a Kantian idea of hope as a response to the difficulty of holding imperfect agents to an impossibly high standard (perfect virtue). Hope plays an enabling role for human agents, mediating the seemingly unstable relationship between imperfect moral agents, characterised by radical evil, and their duty to elevate themselves to the idea of moral perfection in an uncertain world. As such, hope can be seen as a response to the editors’ call to bring attention to the need to work with the vulnerabilities and imperfections of human beings through education and social change. One practical way in which education can accomplish this task is through role modelling. A further contribution of this article is to advocate a Kantian idea of impure role modelling (the role model as imperfect but hopeful).     

Testing a model linking environmental hope and self-control with students' positive emotions and environmental behavior

ABSTRACT

This study examined a moderated mediation model with 254 Israeli junior high school students, hypothesizing that students' environmental hope would simultaneously mediate the relationship between their engagement in school-based environmental activities (green engagement) and their environmental behavior as well as their positivity ratio, but that students' self-control skills would moderate these mediation processes. The results showed that engagement was linked to self-reported pro-environmental behavior, as well as experiencing more positive than negative emotions. Multigroup structural equation modeling indicated that the model provided a good fit to the data, and rigorous bootstrap analysis confirmed the simultaneous mediating role of environmental hope—but only for students with high self-control skills. The limitations and implications of the findings are discussed, and future directions are presented.     

毛泽东的道德理想及其现代启示

毛泽东是一个理想主义者。在探索与建立中国社会主义的进程中,他将自己的道德理想渗透到中国社会主义建设的各项制度与政策中,并以统一的要求,通过政治化的方式付诸实践。由于他道德理想本身的合理因素,加上个人的人格魅力,他的道德理想在实际推行中成为一股巨大的精神力量,有力地推进了中国社会主义事业的发展,同时也给后人留下了许多可供借鉴的经验、教训与令人深思的启示。     

Hesitant hopes: How a comprehensive approach to learning impacts on the transition hopes of marginalised young people in an alternative learning programme in regional Australia

Concerns have been raised internationally about whether alternative learning programmes are producing low-skilled labourers for rapidly disappearing twenty-first-century jobs. Researchers claim that learners in alternative programmes are more at risk due to the focus on low-level vocational and basic skill attainment, with a lack of formal academic pathways available to them. This article questions whether and in what ways an alternative learning programme supports young people to achieve successful transitions to sustainable social mobility for informed citizenship through a holistic approach to learning; or if class stratification is being re/enforced through systems’ accountability discourses. Hesitant hopes in alternative learning are explored through an ethnographic study of one alternative learning programme across five sites in regional Australia. Contextually, not-for-profit community agencies provide physical infrastructures as well as youth workers and volunteers, while a publicly funded School of Distance Education provides teacher oversight of the curriculum. Findings suggest that the theme of ‘hesitant hope’ is constructed through the analysis of the discourses of supporting wellbeing, life skill development and academic learning. These discourses facilitate further analysis of the concept of social mobility, suggesting a conceptual starting point for an engaging critique of the differing perspectives on how support could be providing these marginalised young people with a sense of hope for a socially mobile future.     

合法性危机还是合法性希望--关于意识形态重建的哲学思考

历史上意识形态经历了原始崇拜、宗教皈依和近代理性一元等几个阶段。在20世纪,一元意识形态遭遇了合法性危机,甚至有学提出意识形态的终结问题。然而意识形态的合法性危机也蕴含着合法性希望,那就是多元宽容、“家族相似”性、双赢互利、突出民族和化特色,并辅之以程序正义等原则。     

Underdogs,upsets, and overachievers

This paper explores three phenomena in sport that are connected to narratives of hope: underdogs, upsets, and overachievers. Each of these phenomena is complex. I seek not only to understand the intrinsic nature of these phenomena, but also to explain why they captivate the imagination. After exploring some partial explanations of their enduring appeal, I focus on how the drama associated with underdogs, upsets, and overachievers in sport illuminates the human condition and awakens our sense of possibility when the odds are against us.     

希望哲学与精神教化

20世纪始,人类考察道德生活和教育方式的哲学基础和伦理方法已经发生根本的变化,我们面对一个寻找命运和希望的时代,摆脱一切束缚和负担,用新的眼光期待未来———道德世界观的变革预示着道德教育向精神教化的提升。     

Sacred,Revolutionary Teaching: Encountering Sacred Difference and Honest Hope

Abstract

Sacred teaching takes many forms across religious traditions, focusing on creation and sacramentality in Christianity, God’s nature and creation of human beings in Judaism, and spiritual and social practices in both. At the heart of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian traditions are accents on the sacredness of life, creation in the image of God, and human dignity. This essay analyzes the three traditions to discover textures of sacrality and practices of sacred teaching and learning. Can such teaching be revolutionary in divided contexts? The paper proposes an approach to sacred, revolutionary teaching to foster compassion, openness, humility, and hope.     

论弗莱雷的希望教育哲学

植根于被压迫者教育学,弗莱雷提出了他的希望教育哲学,认为希望是人的本体使命和需求,它与实践紧密相连,但是又超越于实践,它直指未来,是推动历史前进的动力。弗莱雷认为,希望教育只有通过民主的方式才能得以真正进行,人类的解放才会有希望。