With this book, respected academic and community leader, Paulus Zulu, cuts right to the heart of our current malaise. Drawing equally on Western concepts and on African traditional thought, he provides a searing indictment of the state of the nation, casting new light on corruption, incompetence and mismanagement."--Back cover.

In many countries publications in Web of Knowledge journals are dominant in the evaluation of educational research. For various purposes comparisons are made between the output of philosophers of education in these journals and the publications of their colleagues in educational research generally, sometimes also including psychologists and/or social scientists. Taking its starting-point from Hayden’s article in this journal (Stud Philos Educ 31:1–27, 2012), this paper discusses the situation of educational research in three countries: The Netherlands, South Africa and Norway. (...) In this paper an alternative for comparing research output is offered by invoking comparisons with colleagues at the international level from within the same sub-discipline. It is argued that if one would do so a different picture would emerge, even if one were to limit oneself to particular kinds of publications. The case is then made that if comparisons are regarded as a necessary part of the evaluation of an individual scholar (for appointment, promotion, tenure, and/or funding application purposes), it would be more fair to use a proxy system which is sub-discipline specific, or minimally contains some kind of correction factor in relation to the over-all quality assessment device. Debates about the relevance or irrelevance of philosophy of education in the context of educational sciences are now obscured, even poisoned by focusing almost exclusively on a particular kind of publication output. As the ‘reward’ system that is developed accordingly is possibly the most important driver of educational research, it puts the sub-discipline unduly under pressure to the extent that it possibly cannot survive. (shrink)

Psychology has penetrated many domains of society and its vocabulary and discourse has become part of our everyday conversations. It not only carries with it the promise that it will deliver insights into human behaviour, but it is also believed that it can address many of the problems human beings are confronted with. As a discipline it thrives in the present climate of performativity, where more attention is given to means than to ends. The article observes first that for education (...) and thus for educational research, though psychology's approach can be valuable, other theoretical stances are also necessary. It then analyses why psychology may be attractive nowadays in the educational field and identifies its prestige in academia, partly arising from its professionalization, but above all the use of a particular method and the focus on certain contents. This has historical antecedents, and so some illustrations are given of previous developments, paying attention as well to the controversies in which educational psychology has been involved in the past, as well as to the need of biographical research, which warns us to be careful with generalizations. It is argued that a more balanced approach (invoking the particularities of the situation as well as a broader concept of practical rationality) is required for the study of education and that educational researchers therefore should resist the tendency to see psychology as the default auxiliary science of education; instead they should reclaim their territory, do justice to the responsibility that is required and highlight the importance of understanding social practices to a large extent in terms of reasons and intentions. (shrink)

This paper is the sequel to Part 1, which appeared in this Journal, Vol. 46 No. 2, 2012. Following Cavell and his insistence that we should not try to escape from the existential conditions we find ourselves in and look for false certainties, the relevance of embracing a particular stance is elaborated. A commitment to giving substance to an ideal of the good life is neither an injustice towards the other nor an ignorance of her freedom. On the contrary, here (...) responsibility is accepted and at the same time it is acknowledged that we always have only the particular points of departure that we contingently start from. Coming to terms with this kind of dependency constitutes living out the scepticism that is implied by our being human: the logic of this is given along with our human condition. (shrink)

Time, space, causality, communicating and acting together set limits on our freedom. Starting from the position of Wittgenstein, who advocates neither a position of pure subjectivity nor of pure objectivity, and taking into account what is implied by initiation into the symbolic order of language and culture, it is argued that the limitations on our freedom are not to be deplored. The problems of conservatism, relativism and scepticismwhich confront us often in the context of education and child rearingare inadequately dealt (...) with if attention is primarily focused on ways to resist or act differently. Following Cavell and his insistence that we should not try to escape from the existential conditions we find ourselves in and look for false certainties, the relevance of embracing a particular stance is elaborated. A commitment to giving substance to an ideal of the good life is neither an injustice towards the other nor an ignorance of her freedom. On the contrary, here responsibility is accepted, and at the same time it is acknowledged that we always have only the particular points of departure that we contingently start from. Coming to terms with this kind of dependency constitutes living out the scepticism that is implied by our being human: the logic of this is given along with our human condition. (shrink)

Jon Sobrino and Jean-Marc Éla provide unique contributions for theological ethics in reflecting suffering as mystery of evil (mysterium iniquitatis) and suffering as the driving force for liberation (mysterium salutis). As a proponent of liberation theology, Sobrino focuses on structural problem of evil. In this regard, Éla gives his unique voice by analyzing suffering from its socio-cultural perspectives. Putting Sobrino and Éla in dialog shows the need for interdisciplinary approach in doing theological ethics. This interdisciplinary reflection on suffering on the (...) one hand will bring a more holistic view on the complexity of the problem of suffering. On the other hand, it brings a more contextual understanding on the meaning of discipleship in a violent world. Keywords: Saffering, evil, liberation, resocialization, structural & socio- cultural approach, discipleship. Abstrak: Jon Sobrino dan Jean-Marc Éla memberikan sumbangan yang khas bagi refleksi teologis etis tentang kompleksitas problem penderitaan sebagai misteri kejahatan (mysterium iniquitatis) namun sekaligus menawarkan daya dorong bagi kesetiaan menapaki jalan pembebasan (mysterium salutis). Sobrino yang menekankan analisa struktural atas kejahatan membutuhkan analisa sosio-kultural dari Éla sehingga aneka upaya “memberi nama” dan melawan problem kejahatan mendapatkan pijakannya pada praktik-praktik kultural dalam komunitas lokal. Dialog Sobrino dan Éla juga menunjukkan bahwa teologi mesti membuka diri pada kajian interdisipliner dengan ilmu lain sehingga, di satu sisi, misteri penderitaan dapat didekati secara lebih utuh dan, di sisi lain, jalan kemuridan yang muncul karena tanggapan atasnya menjadi lebih kontekstual. Kata-kata kunci: Penderitaan, kejahatan, pembebasan, resosialisasi, pendekatan struktural, pendekatan sosio-kultural, kemuridan. (shrink)

It has been repeatedly stated that approach and avoidance reactions to emotional faces are triggered by the intention signalled by the emotion. This line of thought suggests that each emotion signals a specific intention triggering a specific behavioural reaction. However, empirical results examining this assumption are inconsistent, suggesting that it might be too short-sighted. We hypothesise that the same emotional expression can signal different social messages and, therefore, trigger different reactions; which social message is signalled by an emotional expression should (...) be influenced by moderating variables, such as the group membership of the expresser. In two experiments, we show that group membership influences approach and avoidance reactions to emotional expressions: Emotions (fear and happiness) expressed by in-group members elicited concordant behaviour, whereas emotions expressed by out-group members activated the reverse pattern. A third experiment, in which participants directly evaluated smiling and fearful individuals resembling in-group and out-group members supported this result. (shrink)

9th and 10th Nov. 2013 at Kyoto University. Organizers: Takeshi Sato and Shunsuke Sugimoto.

Jacques Derrida is doubtless one of the most controversial phi- losophers of our time. Controversies surrounding him are mainly caused by his radical ideas which have shaken the main traditions of thinking in Western Philosophy. He demonstrates the contradictions of various philophical concepts. He also uses a provocative approach by connect- ing religion with atheism. This essay will demonstrate Derrida’s concept of religion and how it is connected with atheism. Derrida does not present a theology; however his idea of atheistic (...) faith can contribute to a critical understanding of faith and its expressions within religions. Keywords: Iman (faith), agama (religion), teror (terror), ateis (atheist; athe- istic), hadiah (gift; reward), pengetahuan (knowlegde). (shrink)

Von den Archivalien her gedacht, sind Aktenaushebungen Störungen einer historisch (in)formierten, oft auch kontingenten Ruhe. Als Operationsformen des Medialen ereignen sich Unruhen aber nicht nur in Folge von Interventionen. Sie sind in Akten immer schon vorgezeichnet (u.a. durch Leerstellen). Um sie beschreibbar zu machen, können Bündel aufgerufen werden, in denen sich (Un)Ruhe- Zustände historischer und aktenhistorischer Art überlagern. Unterschiedlich skalierte Eigenzeiten treten so in Erscheinung, Revolutionen und Idyllen. When it comes to papers and documents from the archives, the re-evaluation or (...) re-opening of such records is generally considered to be disturbances of a historically (in)formed and oftentimes contingent peace. As modi operandi of the media, however, upheavals do not only occur in the wake of interventions. Unrests have always been predetermined by records (i. a. via blank spaces). In order to transform those blank spaces into something describable, bundles of data can be drawn up about periods of time in which unrests ortimes of peace of historical and historically recorded scope overlap. Thus, differently scaled frames of time are brought to the forefront, describing revolutions and prosperous times. (shrink)

La aplicación del principio de relatividad, una vez que se ha formulado la posibilidad de una instancia de referencia central, determina una libre opción (autónoma) por medio de la cual se prescinde de la posibilidad de existir en el relativismo, dado que si bien no se descubre una "realidad" , ..