Becoming Virtuous: Character Education and the Problem of Free Will

Dahlbeck, Johan

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-72761-5_65

Cited by 1 publication

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“…In the present paper I am not concerned with whether libertarianism (or compatibilism) holds up to philosophical scrutiny (I have addressed the free will problem in an educational context elsewhere, see Dahlbeck, , , ), but with what the practical consequences of a position like Illusionism would be for education. For this reason I will focus on the tension introduced by assuming that education (as a truth‐seeking endeavour) must rely on (and implicitly perpetuate) existing illusions (whatever these may be).…”

Section: Smilansky's Illusionismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Education, Illusions and Valuable Fictions

Dahlbeck¹

2019

Journal of Philosophy of Education

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Saul Smilansky's Illusionism suggests that some false beliefs are important enough to warrant the indefinite perpetuation of illusions in order to protect the larger moral community from breaking down. In this article I suggest that this position actualises an old educational paradox where education is expected to protect the common moral community (even if this means maintaining some illusions), and at the same time promote the pursuit of truth. Taking Smilansky's position of Illusionism as a starting point, I argue that while Illusionism highlights and addresses an important problem—that sometimes false beliefs can function to maintain social stability where the truth threatens to unsettle it—relying on indefinite illusions is problematic from an educational point of view. It is difficult to justify that education, being at least in part motivated by truth‐seeking, should (or even could) be grounded in illusion. Taking seriously the fact that a dimension of education concerns maintaining social stability, I suggest that Spinoza's notion of fiction can complement Smilansky's view in that it can be conceived in terms of an instrument for maintaining social stability and promoting truth‐seeking without assuming that one end is pursued at the expense of the other.

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Section: Smilansky's Illusionismmentioning

confidence: 99%