‘Simply the Best?’ on the Pitfalls of Full Humanity

Abstract

Aloni’s Enhancing Humanity: the philosophical foundations of humanistic education, recently (2002) published by Kluwer (Dordrecht), is a remarkable book. It is not what one would call a philosophical study of a particular position, neither is it only the development of some or other idea about education. It is in some sense both of these. It is not that the author did not make up his mind about what he thinks education should do, neither is it that he does not want to adhere a particular philosophical stance, because as a matter of fact he does. The book is remarkable, I think, because it tries to do all of this and more. Indeed, The Philosophical Foundations of Humanistic Education tries to encompass everything. It covers not just the school and the family context, but society as well. Moreover, it is difficult to disagree with the substance Aloni is arguing for. Not that one should, after all what is the advantage of disagreeing just for the fun of it, but there seems to be lurking a problem behind his seemingly quite innocent approach. If one cannot disagree with it, what is it then that the author is really arguing for. Before developing the problems I have with this stance, the reader should be made familiar through a brief summary with the author’s position. So what is it that education has to do according to Aloni, by what ideals should it be motivated, and how can its content be justified? The introduction sets the tone of the book: ‘... humanistic education at the beginning of the 21st century finds itself embroiled in a deep crisis ... The present crisis has two central characteristics: ideological banality and ethical nihilism.’ (p. 2; all references by page only are to this publication). Though the greater part of educators displays enthusiastic support for humanistic education, they lack knowledge and orientation and wrongfully identify it exclusively with childcentered pedagogy. The nihilism of our times expresses itself in indifference and cynicism towards intellectual and ethical ideals. There is lack of interest in broadening and deepening our understanding of the essence of humanistic education beyond the banality of its assortment of cliches. A plethora of authors are referred to in order to substantiate this claim. The following quotation typically identifies what is, according to Aloni, really going wrong: