Spinoza on the teaching of doctrines: Towards a positive account of indoctrination

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to add to the debate on the normative status and legitimacy of indoctrination in education by drawing on the political philosophy of Benedict Spinoza (1632–1677). More specifically, I will argue that Spinoza’s relational approach to knowledge formation and autonomy, in light of his understanding of the natural limitations of human cognition, provides us with valuable hints for staking out a more productive path ahead for the debate on indoctrination. This article combines an investigation into the early modern history of political ideas with a philosophical inquiry into a persistent conceptual problem residing at the heart of education. As such, the aim of the article is ultimately to offer an account of indoctrination less fraught with the dangers of epistemological and political idealism that often haunt rival conceptions.

Satan as teacher: the view from nowhere vs. the moral sense

“…The second step is, as pointed out in a recent study by Mogens Laerke (2021, 147-166), to allow people to establish horizontal educational networks where they can freely exercise their natural authority to teach one another in a manner marked by a common interest in each other's well-being and in the promotion of a more adequate understanding of the world. As this paper is not conceived as an in-depth investigation of Spinoza's political theory and its consequences for education (I have done this elsewhere, see Dahlbeck 2021aDahlbeck , 2021bDahlbeck , 2021c, we should not get too bogged down in the particularities of Spinoza's conception of exemplarism or in the political role of education. The purpose is rather to illustrate how the view from nowhere and the moral sense can be reconciled in a manner that does not underestimate the many complications embedded in seeking to negotiate between the two different positions.…”

Dark Patterns and Epistemic Ignorance: an Educational Crisis

“…It goes perhaps to the core of an ethical positioning that education should stimulate the individual, critical mind, and therefore indoctrination in this context would be a corrupting practice (Bista, 2018). Yet it's also been recognised that some indoctrination in education may be politically desirable, and have a positive effect, or is otherwise inevitable (Dahlbeck, 2021;Zembylas, 2021). In a study on scientific indoctrination through public media, Sethi (2012) argues that 'educating is the act of presenting facts with a biasing context, while informing is simply the presentation of facts, with no biasing context.…”