Liberal education, beautiful knowledge and René V. Arcilla's Wim Wenders's Road Movie Philosophy

Abstract

In this short article, in response to the urgent invitation of Arcilla's book, I would like to address the question of how to resuscitate liberal education today and how this might be possible with education through film. First, I shall highlight the perfectionist dimension of Arcilla's idea of liberal education from the perspective of Emersonian moral perfectionism—especially in relation to his thematisation of education as a journey, as being on the way. Second, and questioning anew what it means to gather knowledge throughout one's life, I shall offer some critical remarks regarding Arcilla's characterisation of knowledge as associated with know-how—in his dichotomisation of useful and useless knowledge. To go beyond such a dichotomy, I shall advert to the concept of beautiful knowledge—an idea originally expressed by Henry David Thoreau that does not divide the functional and the aesthetic. Finally, as a concrete way of resuscitating liberal education in higher education, I shall recommend a way of using film in the classroom.