Message-ID: <m11rKKt-0006AGC@fwd00.btx.dtag.de> Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 13:17:49 +0100 From: Christian Labadie <mailto:CLabadie@T-ONLINE.DE> Subject: role of education/research in preventing genocides To: mailto:DEVEL-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
Hello,A month ago I asked some of you about starting an egroup to discuss the possible research trends that could help better understand and possibly prevent the concerning expansion of social violence and exclusion throughout the world. This egroup is now counting some 60 members from a wide range of expertise (writers, NGOs, funding agencies, research laboratories, etc..). Until now we have been discussing aspects of brain research, the role of theater and plays. I am reproducing below a recent post that may interest you. I hope that you will choose to join this egroup.
To learn more about PrevGES: http://nucwww.chem.sunysb.edu/CLabadie/Prevention.html
To subscribe send a blank email: mailto:PrevGES-subscribe@egroups.com
Regards, Christian
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Subject: [PrevGES] Philosophy - should moral philosophy enter high school?
I would like to present 3 initiatives that share a common interest for the role of moral philosophy and its teaching.
"Moral maze: Can philosophy help combat killing?" with this surprising title on its the front-page James Meek of the Guardian Weekly [1] invites to discover the new book on 20th-century cruelty of Jonathan Glover [2] - a leading moral philosopher, director of the centre of medical law and ethics at King's college.
His reflection on the role that moral philosophy could take in response to atrocities committed goes beyond the killing fields; he shows how modern technology affects the human behaviour of those who imagine them: "What modern technology enables us to do is first obliterate sympathy because of the distance". Jonathan Glover suggests that "Moral philosophy has to enter the classroom". He notes that politicians are increasingly employing moral rhetoric; something that seems in contradiction to the standard answer to the many philosophical questions that children asks: "Oh, don't waste time thinking about those unanswerable questions. Learn something pratical".
The research program CEVI [3] was also created in response to a similar acknowledgement of the "state of moral perplexity" in which the sequence of violent events are plunging us.
Another new publication directed by Martine Lucchesi in the respected French speaking collection "Autrement" [4] is courageously exploring the dignity of the culpable. This philosophy collection of essays on "le remords" (twinge of remorse, pangs of conscience) like the CEVI is inspired by the work of Vladimir Jankélévitch [5]. The reader will find a review of moral philosophy from the Gorgias ("It is an illusion to perform an injustice and to believe to be doing what one wants, since it is done by ignorance that a committed injustice is an harm done against oneself" [6]) to the analysis of the series of recent apologies by head of states for wrong-doings in the XXth-century (from the USA to Japan, page 204 in [4]).
In the late 70s, Vladimir Jankélévitch gave the keynote address of "Les États-Généraux de la Philosophie" to save the standard philosophy course during the last class of high school in France. He has inspired a new generation to tackle the difficult question of "le remords" by first regretting the virtues and a general sense of gentleness. The work of Jankélévitch should be seen as a "vitamin" prevention as opposed to a heavy "anti-biotic" treatment, in the sense that it is a philosophical exploration of human feelings and not a logical analysis of historical facts. A commemorative tablet was placed to his memory at "1 quai aux Fleurs" where he lived across the monument to the victims of the Holocaust near the Notre-Dame in Paris.
You may discover a portrait of the Philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch by the photographer Jaydie Putterman at: http://talents.mcnet.ch/PeopleUS/Janke1us.htm
How should this regain of interest for the moral philosophy be understood? Is there any other countries that have a mandatory philosophy teaching as part of standard high school curriculum? Does anyone know of similar initiatives to promote moral philosophy teaching and research? Do standard conflict resolution techniques make any use of the moral philosophy?
Regards, Christian
[1] James Meek - Why do some people kill and torture? Philosophy may hold the key to combating evil. Guardian Weekly, Vol. 161, No 21, Page 23
[2] Jonathan Glover (1999) Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century. Published by Jonathan Cape.
[3] Research Program of CEVI which purpose is to give new perspectives within the state of moral perplexity of our period - http://www.adm.vartec.be/cevi/
[4] Martine Lucchesi (1999) Le remords - Dignité du coupable? Collection of essays, Ed. Autrement, Paris, ISBN 2-86260-915-3
[5] Arnold I. Davidson (1996) The Philosophy of Vladimir Jankélévitch. Critical Inquiry Volume 22, Number 3, Page 545 - http://www.uchicago.edu/research/jnl-crit-inq/v22/v22n3.html
[6] Le Gorgias de Platon: discours de Calliclès - http://phd.evansville.edu/fr/tetra_2/gorgias/disc_cal.htm