Beyond Rational Autonomy: Levinas and the Incomparable Worth of the Student as Singular Other

Abstract

This article explores the question: Why are students of worth? Educationally, an answer often involves a Kantian response: They are of worth because they are always ends and never means. This response is usually connected to a notion of autonomy interpreted as individual, rational self-determination. The article argues for a different answer. The essay begins with a recent educational example of construing worth as rational autonomy. Meira Levinson, in her book The Demands of Liberal Education (1999), argues for a version of rational autonomy which is taken in the essay as a Kantian response to the question. The essay then turns to Kant's own understanding of intrinsic human worth as ends. Although the essay agrees in general with the notion of end, it criticizes Kant's version of rational autonomy. Instead, it argues for a notion of worth as irreplaceable singularity. Both the critique of the Kantian answer and the essay's alternative are shaped by the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. Here technical notions of "the other," proximity and singularity are brought to bear on the question of human worth. The Levinasian alternative, so the essay argues, better answers the question of student worth by highlighting the incomparability of the student as a singular other.

Relación Educativa Y Teoría De La Alteridad De E. Lévinas: Una Revisión Sistemática

“…En opinión de Simon (2003), las preguntas educativas más fundamentales que se extraen de la obra de Lévinas tienen que ver con vivir históricamente, con tener presente el recuerdo del pasado como herencia obligada, con la atención a las experiencias de otros, así como el modo en que las vidas de otras personas importan. Según Joldersma (2008), la teoría de Lévinas no solo aporta respuestas acerca de la relación educador-educando sino que modifica el punto de vista desde el que ha de cuestionarse, cambiando desde la ontología a la ética, ya que la enseñanza pasa de ser entendida como la transmisión de saberes curriculares a considerarse como la respuesta al otro.…”