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I Learning to Live Together: Humanism and Education

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I Learning to Live Together: Humanism and Education Learning to Live Together: humanism and education after the postcolonial challenges Stephen Eric Chatelier ORCID: 0000-0003-4819-4214 Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2016 Melbourne Graduate School of Education University of Melbourne i Abstract The idea of humanism has a long history in philosophies of education. Within the Western philosophical traditions, humanism has assumed different forms, often in response to the shifting historical conditions. It has provided a basic template for envisioning educational goals, and for the kind of individuals and society education is expected to produce. In more recent decades, humanism as a philosophical construct has, however, been the subject of criticisms from a wide range of political and disciplinary perspectives. Such criticisms have arisen from a variety of sources, including structuralism, post-structuralism, feminist, environmental and animal studies. One of the more distinctive criticisms has emerged from postcolonial theorists. These theorists have suggested that while humanism was often portrayed as a liberating project, it in fact served as a driving force behind colonial oppression itself. In colonial education, it legitimized the construction of colonial relations. Postcolonial theories have challenged this role performed by humanism. A question emerges then as to whether this implies a rejection of humanism itself. This thesis engages in a critical analysis of the challenges that three major postcolonial theorists – Frantz Fanon, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Edward Said – pose to the viability and desirability of humanism. After constructing an historical account of humanism and its connections to education within Western traditions, it briefly explores some of the contemporary debates about humanism as a construct. It then suggests that in different ways and to varying degrees, Fanon, Spivak and Said, in their prioritizing of the lived experience of the subaltern, keep open the possibility, and desirability, of humanism as a matter of justice. They do not thus entirely abandon humanism, but suggest the need to rearticulate its meaning and significance so that it is used as a moral resource with which to negotiate the shifting conditions of cultural difference and exchange. The thesis contends therefore that the conditions of globalization have made the idea of humanism more relevant and urgent than ever. Rather than making grand claims or guarantees about its success, this thesis makes the more modest argument that a humanism emerging from the postcolonial challenges needs to be treated as a dynamic notion whose meaning is rearticulated through on-going dialogue and negotiations within and across communities. Education has a major role to play in this, in developing the conversational skills and moral dispositions that enable us to live together, despite our differences. ii Declaration This thesis comprises only my original work towards the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used. The thesis is fewer than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, bibliography and appendices. _________________________ Stephen Eric Chatelier iii Acknowledgements I have a great sense of the privilege it has been to enjoy such a wonderful education over many years. These past few years, in which I have been engaged in the PhD, are ones for which I will be forever grateful. I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Fazal Rizvi and Dr Dianne Mulcahy. I have been so privileged to enjoy the company of two people who not only exhibit intellects of the highest calibre, but a generosity of spirit, time and friendship. Di, I’ll cherish the hallway conversations about posthumanism and the ad-hoc lessons you provided me on the “new materialists”. Fazal, across the countless lunches we have had together, often talking about my project, but also about a vast array of matters, you have simultaneously embodied my critic, mentor, champion and friend. I thank the both of you for the time and energy you have given, and for the unwavering support you have shown for me as an emerging scholar. To my fellow students and colleagues in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education who have offered me friendship and who have enriched and challenged my thinking along the way – in particular Dr Sophie Rudolph, Dr Jessica Gerrard, Ajita Mattoo, Dr Glen Savage, Rosie Barron, Professor Julie McLeod, Ranjit Nadarajah, Dr Peter Woelert and Professor Stephen Crump – I offer you my sincere thanks. To my fellow traveller and dear friend, Nima Sobhani: thanks for your words of encouragement, for challenging me, for sharing the journey with me. Undertaking a PhD full-time with a young family assured that I would be reliant on the sacrifice of others to get the work done. For the many years of support, and for the recent unwavering willingness to assist with child care, I’d like to thank my parents Anita and David. I am also grateful that my father offered to undertake the painstaking task of proof-reading every single word! For making yourselves available to assist with the children for intensive periods while I engaged in self-imposed writing “boot-camps”, I thank my parents-in-law, Jillian and Howard. There are numerous other friends and family members to whom I am grateful, though I could not begin to name them here. I am especially indebted to my long-suffering wife, Anouchka. Not only did you increase your involvement and responsibilities in managing “the Res” to allow me the time to complete this project, you did so while also assuming more than your fair share of responsibility for our children. Your love for, and belief in, me is not only deeply appreciated but reciprocated. To my precious children – Malachi, Eloise and Jude: this thesis has been completed with you in mind. It is my hope that the world you contribute to, and leave behind, will be more just and more humane than the one you inherited. iv Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ ii Declaration .......................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. iv Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Humanism and education in the West ............................................................................. 21 From Ancient Greece to Modern Europe............................................................................................ 22 Humanisms and education in Western history: (dis)continuities ........................................................ 28 Humanism’s continuing legacy as an ethico-political resource ........................................................... 35 Chapter 3: Humanism: recent challenges .......................................................................................... 42 Poststructuralism and the critique of humanism ................................................................................. 44 Feminism and the critique of humanist universalism .......................................................................... 49 Anthropocentrism, animals, antihumanism and the Anthropocene .................................................... 53 Summing up the challenges faced by humanism ............................................................................... 59 Colonial Travel of Humanism: an excursus into the spatial turn ......................................................... 64 The spatial turn, (post)colonialism and humanism ............................................................................. 70 Approach to analysis .......................................................................................................................... 71 Chapter 4: Frantz Fanon ...................................................................................................................... 81 Biographical sketch: a journey from colonial formation to colonial recognition ................................... 82 Colonial humanism ............................................................................................................................. 89 Existential phenomenology, humanism and lived experience ............................................................ 93 The struggle for an emergent humanism............................................................................................ 99 Chapter 5: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak ............................................................................................ 106 The politics of postcolonial theory .................................................................................................... 107 Gender, subalternity and the unrepresentability of woman .............................................................. 112 Marx, Spivak and deconstruction ..................................................................................................... 120 Spivak on Derrida on Marx ............................................................................................................... 123 The Specter of Humanism ...............................................................................................................
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