Teaching Freedom

Abstract

Introduction:  In what is to follow, I will argue that utilizing pedagogical techniques, such as creating a Community of Inquiry (a technique central to a more specific pedagogy referred to as Philosophy for Children), are important because they expose individuals to viewpoints radically different from their own. In so doing, they prod individuals to reevaluate their own positions in light of strong opposing viewpoints. This opposition-exposing procedure helps to neutralize preexisting biases. Since biases can be characterized as potential ‘external’ influences on an individual’s own thinking, and since eliminating such external influences is a necessary condition for autonomy - or what Kant referred to as «selflegislation,» the ultimate value of utilizing pedagogical techniques, such as creating a Community of Inquiry, is that it enhances the possibility of individuals becoming their «own persons.» Since autonomy, or positive freedom, is only possible because humans are self-conscious, and since self-consciousness is the characteristic that defines what it is to be essentially human, if we, as educators, fail to nurture procedures that enhance autonomy, we fail to nurture what it is to be essentially human. If we fail in this regard, we fail at the central task. Thus, I conclude that utilizing pedagogical techniques such as creating a Community of Inquiry should be considered not just relatively beneficial, but rather literally fundamental to the human education process.