On philosophical preconditions of looking for education for authenticity: thoughts on antinomies and abstractions in pedagogical thinking
Abstract
The paper examines the problematic nature of making generalisation ambivalent or, in other words, abstraction in pedagogical consequences. The paper adds to the discussion of good and evil in education by answering two questions.
The fi rst question stems from the antinomous nature of educational aims (i.e. education is to serve the society but also to develop an individual): can educational antinomies be eliminated or is education an antinomous activity and hence it is necessary to take into account its ambivalence? The second question inquires to which extent do we understand what it means to be an authentic personality and the degree to which we can educate for authenticity. The paper proposes Kierkegaard’s and Blondel’s motive of authenticity as a partial way out of contradictions which result from the mentioned antinomies.
The paper also shows that looking for education for authenticity is complicated by attempts at formulating a generally acceptable principle of education and that education suffers the most when it forgets about its antinomous nature. For its attempts to avoid contradictions lead to unacceptable abstractions and formalism.
The paper then introduces the problem of making generalisation ambivalent in relation to educational competencies and concludes with describing the irrevocable yet restorative nature of antinomies.