This paper addresses the question of mental health, in particular the manner in which it finds its way into education. Increased attention to mental health in education should be welcomed, but often the focus is on 'problem-solving', which in turn confines the 'solution' within the spectrum of preventive and corrective intervention. Often it is…

In this article, I will analyse Wim Wenders's film "Paris, Texas" (1984) considering, on the one hand, the concept of destiny posed by René Arcilla in his work on Wenders's road movie philosophy of education and, on the other hand, the distinction between the eye and the gaze as Jacques Lacan defined it in "The Four Fundamental…

The present discussion is motivated by a broad sympathy for the educational commitments that run through René Arcilla's "Wim Wenders's Road Movie Philosophy" (2020). His framing of these commitments is imaginative, as is the invitation to Wenders' films that the book provides. It is, however, with attention to the figures of the frame…

Stanley Cavell was the first to account for the transformation of theory and criticism brought about by reflection on popular culture and its 'ordinary' objects, such as so-called mainstream cinema. However, Cavell is less concerned with reversing artistic hierarchies than with the self-transformation required by our encounters with new…

In this short article, in response to the urgent invitation of Arcilla's book, I would like to address the question of how to resuscitate liberal education today and how this might be possible with education through film. First, I shall highlight the perfectionist dimension of Arcilla's idea of liberal education from the perspective of Emersonian…

To speak of democracy is often to speak less of a fact than of a hope. In his introduction to "Democracy in America," Alexis de Tocqueville admitted that '… in America I saw "more than" America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices and its passions, in order to learn what…

This review article offers a critique of René Arcilla's theory of education as destiny in "Wim Wenders's Road Movie Philosophy: Education Without Learning." After exploring Arcilla's long-standing interest in developing a dramatic approach to educational philosophy, one that avoids both bloodless theorising and melodramatic kitsch, it is…

In this article, I observe that the current practice of liberal-arts learning has entered into a historical crisis in which its central, defining convention--that this learning, unlike grammar learning and vocational learning, promotes freedom--no longer holds much meaning. To overcome this crisis, I suggest that liberal-arts learning should base…

This paper offers some thoughts in response to René Arcilla's stimulating new book on road movie philosophy. I consider the book's case for separating the "educare" and "educere" functions of education from one another by examining the teacherly role of the child in Wim Wenders' films. I then reflect on the nature of train…

In this essay I argue, first, that René Arcilla's project in his book "Wim Wenders's Road Movies: Education without Learning," can be understood as an effort to draw the reader away from a conception of personhood grounded in the Enlightenment and towards an expressive-romantic conception. Yet the sense of the person to which Arcilla…

Curiosity has rightly received much attention in epistemology and educational research. Although, through the centuries, it has been regarded with a degree of ambivalence, the trend now is towards its championing as an intellectual or epistemic virtue. The present discussion juxtaposes it against a contrasting way of knowing, which I refer to as…

Responses to the pernicious influences of mainstream pornography on its viewers fall into two main sorts: regulation and education. Pornography has long been a core topic in analytic feminist philosophy, but it has largely focused on issues around regulation, in particular with trying to undermine arguments against regulation on the grounds that…

The topic of testimony has gained increased prominence in recent years in epistemology, where it is typically taken to refer to the possible acquisition of knowledge through the understanding and acceptance of someone else's judgement. There is no doubt that learning in this way is a prominent feature of education. This conception of testimony…

Taika Waititi's recent film 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' (2016) portrays the coming-of-age of a young boy, Ricky, in a world with few recognisably responsible adults. While the film does not engage explicitly with formal education, it raises several questions central for understanding education as formation, highlighting the generational aspects of…

The article examines what Dewey means by 'growth,' why it is significant and why it should concern us as educators. A metric use of 'growth' is current, as in economic discourse as Gross National Product (GNP), or audited reporting on examination results to produce international achievement data. Dewey's principle of growth focuses on the…