The present article continues my work in logomachy and the philosophy of education. It turns to Bernard Stiegler's concept of the 'idiotext' as the means of terming what I have previously called 'particular sets of sense'. The gambit of the article is that 'intropy' (uncertainty provoked by informational complexity) provides a very useful concept…

This article seeks to explore the metaphor 'darkness and light' and its relevance to education through hauntological study. It draws on the ideas of Derrida and Fisher to reveal that the metaphor functions in binary form and holds significations of truth, goodness and knowledge to subordinate oppositional ideas of darkness. Despite the everyday…

"Prosthesis" and the "human hand" have been terms used by various philosophers in order to describe the interaction that binds together the human being and the technical artefact -- Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida being among the most important of these philosophers. In Bernard Stiegler's philosophy, however, these notions…

Metaphors help us understand a concept by resorting to the imaginary because it is sometimes difficult to do so through the use of words alone. Thinkers have made use of metaphors to not only describe 'falling in love', 'the pain of losing someone dear to us', but also to describe particular concepts both in arts and sciences. In fact, the use of…

This paper takes up Shannon Rodgers' 2016 critique of curriculum writers' call for observable verbs ("Minding our metaphors in education." "Educational Philosophy and Theory" 48 (6), pp. 563-578), and argues that a more effective line of critique should focus not on metaphorical thinking, but on the notion of observation…

Platonic "paideia" is a mainstream concept in traditional philosophy and humanistic circles generally. It is closely connected with social progress brought about by the dynamics of enlightenment and self-fulfillment, symbolized by the allegory of the cave. The main contention of this paper is that the philosophical grammar of this simile…

When "The Myth of Sisyphus" describes those who live in the "rarefied air of the absurd" (p. 86), Camus uses the word fidelity. This signals a recognition of both defeat and the demand for struggle. This suggests a humility. Education can be said to have this characteristic; it is constantly in service to the new and yet…

This article takes up the educational challenge of the framers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Specifically, the author explores the question of: how can we talk about a universal conception of human rights in a way that both respects the need for cultural pluralism and the necessity to protect those rights and freedoms that all…

Could there be a better instance of ethical conflict at the scene of the modern Western university than the case of Martin Heidegger, who in 1933 became a Nazi, arguably to elevate his own standing and career? In this article I examine the opposing ethical forces that animated Heidegger's brief foray into Nazism, to ask whether the same forces…

If educators presuppose that brain and mind are synonymous, perhaps it is out of necessity. Such an equivalency might be required in order for mind to be accessible, knowable and a "thing" like the brain is. Such a presupposition, that mind is a thing which we can understand nonetheless rests on an insecure foundation. As suggested by…

This article seeks to explore the implications of Jean-Luc Nancy's reading of the subject for educational philosophy by connecting his re-interpretation of Descartes to his later thinking on what he names the ontological singular plural. Nancy's re-imagining of the Cogito coalesces around the figure of the mouth ("la bouche") through…

Inspired by Heidegger's philosophy, this article calls for revisiting the role of education and offers an educational goal of examining the meaning of being a human being. Through interpreting the ontological difference, awareness of wholes is suggested as a crucial means for discovering new meanings about ourselves, and Heidegger's perception of…

Over the last decades, education has shifted more clearly to a learner-centered understanding, including particularly constructivism, leaving little room conceptually for a substantive role for the teacher. This article develops a Levinasian framework for understanding the teacher as other. It begins by exploring the spatial metaphors of Levinas's…

In Greek mythology, the Chimera is a fire-breathing monster with three heads: one of a lion, one of a horned goat, and one of a powerful dragon. Of similar construction is the presence of three structures in US society, whiteness, patriarchy, and capitalism, which are overwhelmingly represented, valued, and espoused when examining areas of…

In the face of land confiscations and other forms of imperialism characteristic of the 19th century in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the second Maori King Tawhiao devised a number of sayings that seem at first glance to be entirely mythical. Highly metaphorical and poetic, they appear to refer, as Bakhtin would have it in his discussion of the epic, to a…