Teaching Philosophy Nowadays: A New Approach to Philosophical Vitalism in Education

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Teaching Philosophy Nowadays: A New Approach to Philosophical Vitalism in Education

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Yolanda Angulo

 

Chanting and dancing the human being reveals himself
as member of a superior community; he has
unlearned to walk and talk and is about
to fly through the airs, dancing.
F. Nietzsche

 

Probably most philosophers, at some point of their lives, have questioned their task as a means of social, moral and cultural change. Such skepticism leads to examine the role of philosophy in the educational systems and, consequently, the purpose of the philosophy teacher. If it is impossible to determine the impact philosophy exerts in social and individual transformation, the rejection philosophy causes on most people can be easily accounted for. In general, there are three types of approaches to philosophy: those who love it, those who hate and believe it’s useless and those who consider it “beautiful, but very difficult”.

But, whether accepted or not, philosophy has been an important change factor, because sooner or later its vocabularies, ideas and visions of the world, become part of everyday language and, consequently, of people’s beliefs, values and desires. Therefore we must find new ways of teaching it, so that it may continue playing its role in a more straightforward way. Three different scenarios where philosophy is present can be distinguished for such purpose: universities, middle schools and everyday discursive practices. The second seems to be the more challenging one, because most adolescents literally hate philosophy and consider it old fashion, boring and worthless. This can be attributed to a “natural” reaction of the youngster’s age, the times we live or the teaching methods, programs and even attitudes of professors. Assuming that such rejection is due to a combination of all factors, we must look for the possibility of changing some of them and, instead of teaching a philosophical discourse unappealing to youngsters, attempt a new one.

Both programs and methods are sometimes the result of what I will call, following Richard Rorty, a “professionalized philosophy”, to refer to some type of discourse that starting from Modernity became more and more self-centered, thus forgetting life. So, based on such conception, philosophy programs are usually designed with subjects interesting only to professional philosophers.

Accordingly, a switch from “professional philosophy” to a more vitalistic one is required, which in turn would mean a change of the role philosophy plays in education. The guidelines for a vitalistic philosophy can be found in authors as various as Montaigne, Nietzsche, Foucault, Rorty and in the Greco-roman tradition, among others. So, from vitalism, together with what I have called “Practical Philosophy for the Teaching Practice” , result the following thesis:

a. Teaching philosophy in Middle Schools
The philosophical discourse should be constructed starting from the real problems youngsters face nowadays, in order to provide the theoretical tools to understand and handle situations directly linked with their own lives. This method substitutes the one that starts illustrating the discourse of philosophers throughout history and then trying to apply some of the ideas therein to life, especially concerning ethics. In my view, philosophy is like the so-called by Foucault “toolbox”, from which you take out the required tools to build something you need. So, philosophical discourses, as tools, are just that, instruments to solve problems or fulfill certain spiritual or existential needs .

b. Developing an aesthetic sensibility
One way of fighting against the spirit of heaviness is art; art as creation, as an aestheticist conception of the world and as enjoyment of artistic works. Artists impulsively create works of art; but not all people have such vocation. Students can be guided to enjoy art, not as a burden, as an obligation, but exploiting its ludic and free side. Art can be a means of improvement of peoples and individuals.

c. The Art of Living and the Constitution of the Self
If all individuals undergo a constant process of self-creation during their daily activities, such process can become self-conscience if philosophy is present at all educational levels with the vitalist approach. This would help students to understand the onto-creative nature of human beings, and open the possibility to consciously accept the task of creating themselves. Hence, philosophy should be taught, not as another subject matter in the curricula, but as a constant exercise towards the art of living and constitution of one’s being. So the philosophy teacher can lead his/her students towards a conception of the world and of themselves as a work of art.

If we believe that the human being’s onto-creation thesis is still useful, the foregoing is possible. Richard Rorty describes such capacity with the “net of beliefs” image, which is constantly woven, unwoven and rewoven. According to this romantic idea, each one of us is remaking oneself when one reads, talks, writes, converses, chats and even when one eats, sleeps or dreams.

There are certain philosophical tools teachers can use to help their students in the transit towards the art of living, the aesthetic appreciation and to face their own difficulties as well as social problems. One of them is an adaptation of the classical concepts of paideia and philosophy as therapeia . According to Werner Jaeger, in ancient Greek education, the concept of paideia overcame the original concept of education as techné, which was understood as the techniques to communicate knowledge and transmit professional capabilities. Paideia, on the contrary, referred to the formation of the Greek man, as the last justification of the existence of the human community and individuality, an ideal to follow, more linked to beauty than to utility. Later on, the Latin word humanitas with a similar meaning than paideia, designated the model of the Roman state citizen.

Nowadays, in most Western societies, education is conceived fundamentally as techne, namely, transmission of knowledge and professional skills (know-how), to the extent that it is tending, to use Jean-Françoise Lyotard’s expression, almost exclusively towards performativity. So maybe it’s time to recover and reinvent some of the classic spirit of education as paideia and humanitas using the concept of bildung , reevaluating it to complement, highly technologized, efficiency oriented educational systems.

The foregoing approach derives from a twofold dimension of philosophy: profound and light. Its profound side must describe our time in the most realistic way possible, without veils, regardless of the horror it might find. The result of such diagnosis could aim to the transformation of its negative results . But, at the same time, philosophy should always be a source of pleasure, dance, laughter and enjoyment. It must be aware of agelasts, of the seriousness that winds up in “the spirit of heaviness”.

Young people must learn to face life with such a double –not dualistic— perspective. To understand the difference between dualistic and double, I have used the metaphor of the tree. A healthy tree, although it is well rooted on the earth, its branches dance freely at the rhythm of the wind, blooming and singing to the sun. Both are equally essential, because without roots, the tree would vanish into the air, and without branches it would disappear in the soil. They are not two opposite ontological substances, but features of the same entity .

Philosophy must be critical, non-conformist and incisive on the one hand, and joyful, fresh and lively, on the other. The philosophy teacher or professor must learn to handle both, the profound and the light sides of philosophy. The high school student must be able to reflect about the important things of life, to analyze problems and develop a social consciousness in front of the injustice, horror and daily suffering of many peoples worldwide; and, at the same time, learn the love of life, acquire the joy of living and devote themselves to the task of building their own being.

To sum up, philosophers must captivate pupils, with a fascinating, seductive discourse, but especially, living and transmitting a type of philosophy that is a chant of life, an affirmation of art and beauty. It cannot ignore the current status of our planet, which is about to burst in genocides, world hunger, ecological, nuclear and genetic cataclysms. In this paper, however, I have stressed the vitalist and aestheticist side of philosophy that will wind up in the revitalization of a philosophical education. So, although I have discussed critical philosophy elsewhere, I believe that the joyful trend must be seriously taken into consideration, since it is almost inexistent, undervalued for not being “serious”.