An Authenticity Economy and the They in Education and in Philosophy of Education

Abstract

In a capitalist world where self-interested forces seek to gain power by recruiting members to their ranks and where “thinking for yourself” is the enemy of commercialism and consumerism — unless you are the one making the money — examining and clarifying opportunities for being an active thinker in the face of conformism is crucial. In “Heidegger and the Nature of Social Learning,” Dan Fisherman offers such an opportunity in order to assist us in saving educational discourse from falling into idle talk and preventing students from bathing in the fake warmth of inauthenticity. Addressing the suggestion that social learning fosters the development of conformist thinking is important in providing an escape from a pessimistic view regarding the possibility of generating fresh ideas in a social setting, which is not just a strategic necessity (a la Dewey’s social renewal) but also a basic pedagogical condition in order to nurture moral human beings. Diving into Being and Time is a challenging endeavor Fisherman bravely undertakes and from which he extracts evidence that, according to Heidegger, the choice is still in our hands. It is exciting each time to discover anew how this book from 1927 is relevant for education today. In my response, I broaden Fisherman’s analysis and raise questions that examine the boundaries of the conceptual framework discussed in the essay.