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ERIC Number: EJ1164547
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1857
EISSN: N/A
Killing the Buddha: Towards a Heretical Philosophy of Learning
Johansson, Viktor
Educational Philosophy and Theory, v50 n1 p61-71 2018
This article explores how different philosophical models and pictures of learning can become dogmatic and disguise other conceptions of learning. With reference to a passage from St. Paul, I give a sense of the dogmatic teleology that underpins philosophical assumptions about learning. The Pauline assumption is exemplified through a variety of models of learning as conceptualised by Israel Scheffler. In order to show how the Paulinian dogmatism can give rise to radically different pictures of learning, the article turns to St. Augustine's and Robert Brandom's examples of language learning, and to general strands in scholarship on moral education. Dewey's view of childhood immaturity and the problem of adult maturity are used as first attempt at a counter picture to the idea that learning must have an end. The article takes Dewey's idea further by suggesting how the Zen-Buddhist idea of killing the Buddha and Wittgenstein's method of destroying pictures work on the dogmatic focus on uses of "learning" that assume ends. In conclusion, the article suggests three possible uses of "learning"--learning from wonder, intransitive learning and passionate learning--that do not assume that learning has or must have a teleological end.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A