Session Information
13 SES 07 A, Parallel Paper Session
Parallel Paper Session
Contribution
The paper addresses the issue of identity formation in educational practices and in politics, in terms of their normative dimensions. The point of departure is Ernesto Laclau's theory of political identity (Laclau 1996, 2005). Laclau's theory has won broad recognition, but at the same time it has evoked discussion concerning its alleged indifference to normative judgments (Critchley 2004). This seems to be, to large an extent, due to Laclau's stress on the ontological (rather than the ontic) dimension of identity, i.e. on the analysis of its “political logic” rather than its “content”.
The possibility to use this theory as pertinent to education is extremely promising due to its explanatory potential. However, since its very beginning, educational theory has been fundamentally connected to ethics and this connection needs to be kept alive. Hence the aim of this paper is to extend the possibilities of linking Laclau's theory to the ethical. The first dimension of such a connection may be the question of exclusion. As identities are always differential, and Laclau makes this even stronger, saying that what is at work in identification is not merely difference but exclusion, we always have to ask who is excluded on the way to identity, and how we can think of exclusion in ethical terms (Szkudlarek 1993, 2007, 2011). I shall present several tropes of the ethical reflection on exclusion, as it can be reconstructed in contemporary literature (Myhrvold 2003, Rosland 2005, Dovi 2009, Rosen 2009, and others). I will also turn to Chantal Mouffe's (2005) argument against ethical claims in politics and to her idea of agonistic (as opposed to antagonistic) struggles. Reading those ethical reflections through Laclau's “ontological difference”, we may distinguish here between the deontic and the deontological (Szkudlarek 2011), and use this distinction to solve some difficulties with normativity of “formal” theories, like that of Lalcau's. For instance, such a reading resolves the apparent incoherence in Mouffe's argument, where on the one hand we read about the need to overcome ethical claims in politics, while on the other Mouffe stresses the need of agonistics rather than antagonistic politics, where we face adversaries rather than enemies, and this assertion (why not enemies?) is difficult to justify without an ethical argument. However, we may see that Mouffe's opposition against making politics “ethical” is deontic (it speaks to “content” of politics) while her assertion of agonism is deontological (it speaks to the “form” of the struggle).
We may assume that this distinction may be productive in re-analysing the normative aspects of Laclau's theory of identity. It can also help us understand the instances of normativity present in educational discourse, where it is not only the content matter of the curricula, but also (and more and more often) the very forms of the pedagogical that need to be understood in their ethical dimensions. Of course the most obvious way of making theory normative is to “descend” from its formal dimension to its substantive “content” (Gilabert 2005). That move, however, should be delayed until we test the normative consequences that are implied on the ontological level.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Critchley S. (2004), Is there a Normative Deficit in the Theory of Hegemony? In: Critchley S., Marchart O. (eds), Laclau. A Critical Reader. London and New York: Routledge. Dovi S. (2009), In Praise of Exclusion. The Journal of Politics 3, 1172-1186 Gilabert P. (2005), A Substantivist Construal of Discourse Ethics. International Journal of Philosophical Studies Vol.13 (3), 405-437. Laclau E. (1996), Emancipations. London: Verso. Laclau E. (2005), On Populist Reason. London: Verso Levinas E. (1981), Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence. Springer. Mouffe Ch. (2005), On The Political. London: Routledge Myhrvold T. (2003), The Exclusion of the Other: challenges to the ethics of closeness. Nursing Philosophy 4, 33-43 Rosen F. (2005), Towards a Theory of Institutionalized Juridical Exeptionalism. Journal of Scadinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention 6, 147-164. Rosland S. (2009), Victimhood, Identity and Agency in the Early Phase of Troubles in Northern Ireland. Identites: Global Studies in Culture and Power 16, 294-320. Szkudlarek T. (1993), The Problem of Freedom in Postmodern Education. Westport, London: Bergin & Garvey Szkudlarek T. (2007), Empty Signifiers, Education and Politics. Studies in Philosophy and Education 26: 237-252. Szkudlarek T. (2011), Semiotics of Identity: Education and Politics. Studies in Philosophy and Education 30: 113-125. Zamojski P. (2010), Miejsce normatywności w dyskursie pedagogiki: ku pojmowaniu działania edukacyjnego jako kwestii etycznej. In: J.Michalak (ed.), Etyka i profesjonalizm w zawodzie nauczyciela. Wyd. UŁ, Łódź, 327-339. Žižek S. (1989), The sublime object of ideology. London: Verso
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