Education as Liberation of a Human: Obligatoriness of the Alienation Shackles

This article is focused on the necessity of dogmatism and alienation for the genesis of human subjectivity. Viewpoints of F.T. Mikhailov, M.B. Turovsky and L.S. Chernyak on a certain aspect of philosophy of education are compared with Heidegger’s consideration of the education as Paideia. The author uses the beginning of Heidegger’s “Plato’s Doctrine of Truth”, where Heidegger, expounding Plato’s Parable of Cave, shows that Plato’s understanding of Paideia is interpretation of the meaning and purpose of education as human freedom; but, at the same time, one aspect of Paideia is a return back to the cave - as a result of the irrevocable link between Paideia and uneducation. It is suggested to strengthen this link in the process of education: one should not only return to the cave, but also put the chains on again, because the Subjectivity (freedom) will not arrive without this step. In the context of Chernyak’s concept, the “returning to the cave” is a required moment for the human subjectivity formation, impossible without participation of the unthought Other being. This participation of the Other requires some human efforts, represented by inscription (alienation) of the human Subjectivity into the objective life world. Mikhailov’s position, though it has got many innovations, still follows the interpretation of alienation by Hegel and Marx, that means the human alienation is understood as a transient stage of history. Mikhailov’s colleagues, Turovsky and Chernyak, believe that the alienation is not only obligatory, but also a constantly repeating moment in the formation of human Subjectivity (freedom). Changes in ontogenesis generate development of the culture (as an embodiment of human Subjectivity). Therefore, the ontogenesis recapitulates cultural phylogenesis, as it precedes the latter. This leads to the problematic of hermeneutic circle and mental space, since the formation of human Subjectivity requires not only the alienation of Subjectivity, but also a creative overcoming of it.

human subjectivity, embodiment, history of culture, education, ontogenesis, alienation, the Other, meaning, hermeneutic circle

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