And That’s Not All: (Sur)Faces of Justice in Philosophy of Education

Abstract

Adjectives such as “environmental”, “social”, “cosmopolitan”, “relational”, “distributive”, etc. reflect how scholars discern the many faces of justice and put several claims to, and claimants of, justice in perspective. They have also helped related research to focus on some surfaces of justice, that is, on spaces that invite justice, localities and formations, such as the state, social policies, social institutions, etc. within which ethical-political challenges unravel. Diverse philosophical perspectives enable context-specific explorations of (sur)faces of justice. However, I argue, there is more to the concept of justice than what perspectives (considered alone or in their sum total) allow us to view. To theorize how this surplus may be more discernible through stereoscopic rather than perspectival optics I first describe how educational-philosophical perspectives, old and new, discuss just education or education for justice; and then I critique the very notion of perspective on which scholarly work relies. Despite their merits, perspectival framings of justice fail to address the interconnectivity of various (sur)faces of justice.

Analytic philosophy of education: Some suggested questions and directions

“…Right now, apart from APE, there are diverse trends in educational philosophy with the French-continental variety being a widely dispersed one, rivalled by edusemiotic, Frankfurt School-critical-theoretical, virtue-epistemological and postcolonial alternatives (Papastephanou, 2016). From Papastephanou’s (2021) stereoscopic optic, it is important to avoid reductions of philosophy to master discourses and trends. APE then should be viewed as one way of doing philosophy whose convergences with, and divergences from, other philosophical ways enrich and invigorate the discipline of educational philosophy.…”

A Stereoscopic Approach to Distinctions of Justice

“…• Persons having reasonable expectations from others (adjectives pertinent to this facet of justice may be 6 I answer this question in relation to philosophy of education elsewhere. See (Papastephanou, 2021).…”

“…Let me self-reflectively draw the reader's attention to my use of the adjective "cosmetic". 25 The adjective "cosmetic" accuses new cosmopolitanism of often paying lip service to the ideals and virtues that are typically associated with cosmopolitanism, instead of truly advancing them. Thus, it is employed to challenge critical or new cosmopolitanism and to point out what remains outside its vision.…”

“…To push this to its implications, consider the distinct territorial mark, sometimes indelible, that the absence of such a virtue leaves on earth surfaces, ecosystems, biota and nonbiota, landscapes, historical moments, societies, political configurations, institutions, families, writings, narratives and subjectivities. Stereoscopic justice comprises the foci and tools for dealing with this mark in complex and critical ways [25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

“…Since I have discussed the differences of "perspective" and "stereoscopy" elsewhere I will not cover this ground here. See(Papastephanou, 2021).…”