1st Edition

Levinas and Education At the Intersection of Faith and Reason

Edited By Denise Egéa-Kuehne Copyright 2008
    314 Pages
    by Routledge

    314 Pages
    by Routledge

    This first book-length collection on Levinas and education gathers new texts written especially for this volume by an international group of scholars well known for their work in philosophy, educational theory, and on Levinas. It provides an introduction to some of Levinas's major themes of ethics, justice, hope, hospitality, forgiveness and more, as its contributing authors address some fundamental educational issues such as: what it means to be a teacher; what it means to learn from a teacher; the role of language in the curriculum; literature, ethics, and education; moral education and human relations in schools; ethics of responsibility and philosophical-pedagogical discourse; educational hospitality and interculturalism; unconditional responsibility and education; educating for participatory democratic citizenship; the pedagogy of peace; logic, rationality, and ethics; connecting teaching to spirituality.

    Levinas always insisted that his aim was not to provide "a program," and accordingly, it is not the intent of the authors to look in Levinas's texts for a set of guidelines, rules, or precepts to be applied to education. Rather, this study invites educators, and researchers in philosophy and philosophy of education, to a thoughtful and critical reading of Levinas, and to engage with his unique style of analysis and questioning as they uncover with these authors the necessity and the possibility of thinking education anew in terms of ethics, justice, responsibility, hope and faith.

    INTRODUCTION

    Denise Egéa-Kuehne

     

    1. Emmanuel Levinas school master and pedagogue

    Catherine Chalier and Ami Bouganim

    2. Levinas's quest for justice: Of faith and the "possibility of education"
    Denise Egéa-Kuehne

    QUESTIONING EDUCATION

    3. The Importance of enjoyment and inspiration for learning from a teacher

    Clarence W. Joldersma

    4. Levinas's language and the language of the curriculum

    Paul Standish

    5. Emmanuel Levinas, literary engagement, and literature education

    Claudia Eppert

    6. Other than the Other: Levinas and the educational questioning of infinity

    Ian McPherson

    7. Teaching our way out when nobody knows the way: A Levinasian response to modern hope

    Julian Miles Edgoose

    8. Thinking the Other – The other thinking: Remarks on the relevance of the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas for the philosophy of education

    Michael Wimmer

    FIRST PHILOSOPHY

    9. The Priority of ethics over ontology, the issue of forgiveness and education: Levinas's face-to-face ethics

    Marianna Papastephanou

    10. Thinking educational ethics with Levinas and Jonas

    Eirick Prairat

    11. Welcoming and difficult learning: Reading Levinas with education

    Sharon Todd

    12. Autonomy and heteronomy: Kant and Levinas

    Zdenko Kodelja

    13. Pedagogy with empty hands: Levinas, education, and the question of being human

    Gert J. J. Biesta

    BETWEEN ETHICS AND POLITICS

    14. How hospitable can dwelling be? The folds of spatiality in Levinas

    Zelia Gregoriou

    15. Justice in the name of the Other: Levinas on rights and responsibility

    Ann Chinnery and Heesoon Bai

    16. Peace as being taught: The philosophical foundations of a culture of peace

    Jeffrey Dudiak

    17. Dehiscence: A dispersal of Levinas in the South Pacific

    Betsan Martin

    18. Ethical obligation and avoiding self-sacrifice in caring for the Other: Reflections on Levinas

    Jim Garrison

     

    Biography

    Denise Egéa-Kuehne is Professor of Education and Director of the French Education Project for Research and Teacher Education in the Department of Educational Theory, Policy and Practice at Louisiana State University. Her work includes Derrida & Education (co-edited with Gert J.J. Biesta, Routledge, 2001), and Key Critical Thinkers in Education: Derrida (forthcoming with Sense Publishers).


    " As a whole, I found that the book raised significant questions for Levinas’s philosophy and those who comment on it. Additionally, it provides a valuable resource for philosophers of education who might not have considered turning to Levinas to deepen their own reflections on teaching and learning. Regardless of one’s position on Levinas’s project, all of the essays presented challenges, questions, and insights worthy of consideration.--Studies in Philosophy and Education (2009), 28: 375-381