ERIC Number: EJ1252123
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Apr
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0309-8249
EISSN: N/A
Human Life, Rationality and Education
Kern, Andrea
Journal of Philosophy of Education, v54 n2 p268-289 Apr 2020
In this paper I explore the prospects of a Neo-Aristotelian position--according to which the difference between the human species and non-human animals is a difference in 'form'--in the context of the question of how the human form of life is related to the idea of education. Two interpretations of this idea have been suggested by contemporary Neo-Aristotelian philosophy that offer contrasting accounts of the role played by education. According to the first, the idea of a formal difference goes with a notion of potentiality, according to which the distinctiveness of the human is mainly a product of education, and hence a matter of second nature. According to the second, the idea of the human is the idea of a formally distinctive kind of first nature that explains the very possibility of education. I maintain that both interpretations do justice to an important aspect of human life yet fail fully to grasp the significance of the notion of 'form' that they employ. I argue that to embrace the insight that the difference of the human is a difference in 'form', we must think of the human as a form of life whose very concept contains the concept of education. The concept of education, I argue, is a logical concept, contained in the concept of life that it describes.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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