American Philosophy, Translation and the Time of the Pandemic: A Rejoinder to Ruth Heilbronn and Adrian Skilbeck

Abstract

In response to Ruth Heilbronn and Adrian Skilbeck's thoughtful review of my American Philosophy in Translation, I take up three aspects of the argument about which I want both to defend my position and to clarify it further. The first is the use of examples in philosophy and philosophy of education. The second raises the question of how far American philosophy, as a philosophy in response to crisis, can answer to the contemporary crisis of the pandemic. The third addresses some educational implications of American philosophy in translation by paying attention to the particularities of its language-especially in respect of such considerations as distance education, international exchange without travel and alternative routes of political education through withdrawal and through the creation in digital space of what Thoreau called 'beautiful knowledge'.

Philosophy of Education in Times of Crises and Pandemics

“…Some of the most recent educational-philosophical writings and research projects on political education have characterised this age as the "pandemic times" or the "era of global crises", suggesting "cures" for its pathologies (see, for instance, [1][2][3][4][5]; see also the numerous articles on pandemic/viral times that the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory has published). That is, in much philosophy of education today, diagnostics of the times (Zeitdiagnosen) underlie visions of a more desirable future, such as the democratic, the decolonial, the all-inclusive, the ecological, the post-digital, etc.…”