Setting out from the categories of totality and histori(ci)sm in Kosik's Dialectics of the Concrete, we look at the relationship between theory and praxis: empty, abstract totality versus concrete, reified and ali...Setting out from the categories of totality and histori(ci)sm in Kosik's Dialectics of the Concrete, we look at the relationship between theory and praxis: empty, abstract totality versus concrete, reified and alienated practice (Lukacs, Habermas, Honneth); a bad totality, in which the real polydimensional subject is replaced by the one-dimensional, mythologized, fetishized, and economistically reduced "subject" of consummation (Marcuse, Baudrillard). The dialectics of concrete totality implies a marxistic critique of the ethical and juristic universalism, in the context of the "positive" side of globalization and political unilateralism, as a concrete, militant, hegemonistic, post-colonial, and neo-imperial practice (Apel, Habermas, Chomsky, Zinoviev); globalization as totali(tari)zation, the "last man," the "end of history," and the "end" of dialectics in its neo-liberal, eschatological, empty ideological "realization" (Hegel, Marx, Fukuyama, Arendt); the totality of the (invariable) being as a pseudo-concrete and pseudo-dialectical ontologistic speculation (Heidegger): A "return" to a concrete history and a return of the "positive" dialectics as a critical awareness, mind, and method in the discourse "game" of human's cognitive, creative, and practical powers. The assumption of Kosik's humanism is a synchrony of nature and history in the "absolute" totality of human's concrete existence (Lukacs, Goldmann, Adorno, Sartre, Kosik).展开更多
Democratic private schools in Israel are a part of the neo-liberal discourse. They champion the dialogic philosophy associated with its most prominent advocates--Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas---together with Paulo Fr...Democratic private schools in Israel are a part of the neo-liberal discourse. They champion the dialogic philosophy associated with its most prominent advocates--Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas---together with Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy, the humanistic psychology propounded by Carl Rogers, Nel Noddings's pedagogy of care and concern, and even Gadamer's integrative hermeneutic perspective. Democratic schools form one of the greatest challenges to State education and most vocal and active critique of the focus conservative education places on exams and achievement. This article describes the dual discourse connected to the schools. The first is the inner dialogical, which is devoted to student freedom and progress, the child being placed at the center. The second is the exterior discourse, which represents the school as a place of counter-education that provides personal and group development and comprises a site of liberty and choice. The schools in Israel are described as test case and indicating the existence of a sophisticated form of deception via the use of alluring terminology. The democratic private schools should be recognized for what they really are--agents of commodification that undermine democracy rather than enhance it.展开更多
文摘Setting out from the categories of totality and histori(ci)sm in Kosik's Dialectics of the Concrete, we look at the relationship between theory and praxis: empty, abstract totality versus concrete, reified and alienated practice (Lukacs, Habermas, Honneth); a bad totality, in which the real polydimensional subject is replaced by the one-dimensional, mythologized, fetishized, and economistically reduced "subject" of consummation (Marcuse, Baudrillard). The dialectics of concrete totality implies a marxistic critique of the ethical and juristic universalism, in the context of the "positive" side of globalization and political unilateralism, as a concrete, militant, hegemonistic, post-colonial, and neo-imperial practice (Apel, Habermas, Chomsky, Zinoviev); globalization as totali(tari)zation, the "last man," the "end of history," and the "end" of dialectics in its neo-liberal, eschatological, empty ideological "realization" (Hegel, Marx, Fukuyama, Arendt); the totality of the (invariable) being as a pseudo-concrete and pseudo-dialectical ontologistic speculation (Heidegger): A "return" to a concrete history and a return of the "positive" dialectics as a critical awareness, mind, and method in the discourse "game" of human's cognitive, creative, and practical powers. The assumption of Kosik's humanism is a synchrony of nature and history in the "absolute" totality of human's concrete existence (Lukacs, Goldmann, Adorno, Sartre, Kosik).
文摘Democratic private schools in Israel are a part of the neo-liberal discourse. They champion the dialogic philosophy associated with its most prominent advocates--Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas---together with Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy, the humanistic psychology propounded by Carl Rogers, Nel Noddings's pedagogy of care and concern, and even Gadamer's integrative hermeneutic perspective. Democratic schools form one of the greatest challenges to State education and most vocal and active critique of the focus conservative education places on exams and achievement. This article describes the dual discourse connected to the schools. The first is the inner dialogical, which is devoted to student freedom and progress, the child being placed at the center. The second is the exterior discourse, which represents the school as a place of counter-education that provides personal and group development and comprises a site of liberty and choice. The schools in Israel are described as test case and indicating the existence of a sophisticated form of deception via the use of alluring terminology. The democratic private schools should be recognized for what they really are--agents of commodification that undermine democracy rather than enhance it.