Pedagogy as Self-Reference in External-Reference - Conceptual-Historical Theory Figures in the Discourse of Modernity (Pädagogik als Selbstbezug im Fremdbezug - Ideengeschichtliche Theoriefiguren im Diskurs der Moderne)

Abstract

The designation of pedagogy as self-reference within the frame of external-reference points to a fundamental dualism within which, generally, human history is anchored: the position of man between his attachment to and liberation from nature, between attachment to and liberation from culture. Reading the history of mankind as a struggle against natural and cultural ties does not follow any ideologically-progressive scheme of reading, but rather searches for formal criteria of description. It is plausible that this varies, depending on perspective or the kind of question one raises. For pedagogy, as practical science of education and formation, this fundamental dualism of the history of mankind has to be specified as follows: Structurally, the term of education is about the relationship between what has been effected and effecting, which means it deals with forms of instruction being directed towards becoming socially-independent. In this context, the pedagogical question incorporates the problem of coercion and freedom, taking into perspective social and cultural aspects represented in the educator-pupil relation. In the educational act, the pedagogical problem will be formulated as to how self-realization can be produced on condition of functional access of institutional and social power. In contrast, the formation term operates on the correlation of being-formed and self-formation. Within this frame, this relationship structurally deals with processes which focus on individuality. In this context, the pedagogical problem is the question of how, in educational processes and in processes of arguing about the Thing and the Other, a self-relationship can be established. The formal description of education and formation as correlative as self-reference in the external-reference, implies, in view of the formation of an educational theory, that tension terms, within which the concepts of education and formation constituted, have to be determined. Furthermore, it also implies to work out how the underlying dualism can be transformed into a theoretical approach in regard to education and formation. As for modernity, I will confine myself to deal with the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schiller, Wilhelm von Humboldt and Enrique Dussel. Focusing on those authors, it can be illustrated that the pedagogical questions of self-realization and self-formation are founded on very different figures of duality and, therefore, will result in different and sometimes divergent conceptions of the pedagogical theory.