This contribution seeks to elucidate something inherently transformative in the notion of learning as a purposeful human engagement: something elusive but definitive that enables humans to flourish  through the disclosure of  an unforced, ever emergent sense of identity.

Ironically, this ‘something ‘ has progressively leaked away in recent decades as  the international policy discourse on education makes ‘learning’ and its cognates ever  more central to its own concerns:   ‘learning society’, ‘lifelong learning’, ‘learning outcomes’,  ‘learner-centred’, ‘distance learning’ , ‘digital learning.’   Even the term ‘students’ is being frequently replaced by the term  ‘learners’. 

This international  shift in usage  has been characterised by Biesta (2010) and othere as  ‘learnification’, this ‘deliberately ugly’ word being chosen to indicate the loss of something rich and worthy. ‘Learnification’ is habitually preoccupied with taken-for-granted purposes that are individualistic and instrumental, thus marginalising  questions that ask what good education is for. 

An unfortunate consequence of the gradual impoverishment of the word ‘learning’ is that it comes to be seen as something neutral, or technical;  – something that can be used for this end or that, good or bad.. We could draw a helpful comparison here from Heidegger’s explorations in his essay  ‘The Question Concerning Technology’. The opening page contains the challenging, but perceptive remark that humans are delivered over to technology ‘in the worst possible way when we regard it as neutral’.  Heidegger illustrates further that technology  is a certain  orientation  in thought and action;  a ‘way of revealing’ that  is already pre-disposed.  It  already ‘puts exact science to use’ (p.296). In this gives prominence to certain valuations and courses of action and obscures  or marginalises others.   The comparison  is pertinent because,  in the globalised 21^st century, learning and  what it signifies  have become largely technologised.  Prominence is given to the calculable, the measurable, the rankable, while neglecting the fertile reach of all that is beyond measue.

Philosophy of education needs to seek boldly to reclaim the notion of learning. To open a more definite and more promising path of exploration I’m invoking Erasmus, because a close reading of his works exemplifies the  richness  that lies at the heart  of  any adequate notion of learning. (Also 500 years ago this decade that Praise of Folly was published in a series of expanded editions).  His explicit writings on education are few: e.g.  ECP, RMI, LEC.  These are works of 'advice' – recommending pedagogical practices that pursue education as a humane and humanising undertaking, informed by a commitment to  Christian ideals of love.

But major writings like Praise of Folly, when read with a pedagogical eye, open up more dramatic and maginative landscapes.  Here, the barrenness of the dominant scholasticism in European centres of learning is humorously and memorably  ridiculed. 

But underlying the consummate wit is a serious purpose for Erasmus the theologian:  bringing students to experience  inheritances of learning  that embrace the deepest yearnings of the human heart. This is not a purely mystical Christianity however:  For Erasmus the fruits of learning mean do not mean possession of a divine truth that might justify  acts of violence against non-believers , or those who might believe differently.   Consistent in Erasmus is a restraint from this intense sense of the mystical, in favour of  an emancipatory ‘folly’:  a trusting faith that seeks to love God through loving one’s neighbours, including those neighbours who don’t believe , or who believe differently.

For us, the insights to be gained are't necessarily religious; rather they affirm the re-disposing promise of learning when it is given the scope to open paths that allow leaarning itself to flourish. 

Augustijn, C. (1991) Erasmus: His Life, Works, and Influence, trans. J. C. Grayson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press Bayne, S. (2014) ‘What’s wrong with technology-enhanced learning?’ in Proceedings of the 9th international conference on networked learning 2014, edited by S. Bayne, C.Jones, M. deLaat, T.Ryberg and C. Sinclair; available at http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fss/organisations/netlc/past/nlc2014/abstracts/pdf/bayne.pdf Biesta, G.J.J.(2010) Good Education in an Age of Measurement: Ethics, Politics, Democracy Boulder USA & London UK Bingham, C. (2016) ‘On the Logic of Learning and Rationality’ in Philosophy of Education 2015, Urbana-Champaign: Philosophy of Education Society USA, available at http://ojs.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/pes/issue/current Dickens, A.G & Jones, W.R.D. (2000) Erasmus the Reformer London: Methuen Erasmus, D. (1515/1971) Praise of Folly, translated by B. Radice London : Penguin Erasmus, D. (2015) ‘On the Right Method of Instruction ‘ and ‘ On the Liberal Education of Children’, (RMI and LEC) in Desiderius Erasmus Concerning the Aim and Method of Education, editor W.H.Woodward, South Yarra, Australia Heidegger, M. (1978) ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ in Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings (various translators) edited by D.F. Krell London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Huizinga, J. (1924/2001) Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, translated from Dutch by F. Hopman New York: Dover Publications McConica, J. (1991) Erasmus Oxford: Oxford University Press Srreech, M.A. (1980) Erasmus: Ecstasy and the Praise of Folly London: Penguin