Learning subjects: Impersonal or user-friendly?

Abstract

In this article, written in “interchange” with Anita Rampal's “A Possible ‘Orality’ for Science?” (Interchange, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 227–244), a distinction is made between (A) aims of science, which is a philosophical issue; (B) the existence of forms of thought in their own right; and (C) the question of whether we teach the most important forms. The general conclusion is that we have to subject students to transcendental forms of thought irrespective of their social or cultural background, by whatever methods are most appropriate.