This book is a philosophical enquiry into the educational consequences of Spinoza's political theory. Spinoza's political theory is of particular interest for educational thought as it brings together the normative aims of his ethical theory with his realistic depiction of human psychology and the ramifications of this for successful political…

Johan Dahlbeck works as senior lecturer at Malmo University. His research interest is in the philosophy of education, focusing especially on ethics and the pedagogical implications of Spinoza's philosophy. In this article, he responds to Jim Mackenzie's "Dahlbeck and Pure Ontology" (EJ1105980), which was written in reply to his…

This article begins with the question: What is it to live? It is argued that, from a Spinozistic perspective, to live is not an either/or kind of matter. Rather, it is something that inevitably comes in degrees. The idea is that through good education and proper training a person can learn to increase his or her degree of existence by acquiring…

In this Spinozist defence of the educational promotion of students' autonomy I argue for a deterministic position where freedom of will is deemed unrealistic in the metaphysical sense, but important in the sense that it is an undeniable psychological fact. The paper is structured in three parts. The first part investigates the concept of autonomy…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a widely spread diagnosis. The dominant paradigm of ADHD is biomedical where ADHD is defined as a brain disorder. At the same time, the legitimacy of the diagnosis is being questioned since it is unclear whether or not ADHD can be deemed a medical disorder in itself. The aim of this article is to…

In this paper I suggest that Spinoza's understanding of virtue and collective flourishing, rooted in his psychological and ethical egoism, offers a fresh perspective on the question of egoism in education. To this end, I suggest an understanding of the teacher as egoist, where the self-seeking of the teacher is conditioned by--and runs parallel…

Following a trajectory of thinking from the philosophy of Spinoza via the work of Nietzsche and through Deleuze's texts, this article explores the possibility of framing a contemporary pedagogical practice by an ontological order that does not presuppose the superiority of the mind over the body and that does not rely on universal morals but…

Education for sustainable development represents a politically prioritized area of knowledge in contemporary Swedish education and as such it has acquired a prominent position among the governing values of educational policy. Insofar as education for sustainable development is directed at securing the future of human well-being, this article…

This text deals with a problem concerning processes of the productive power of knowledge. We draw on the so-called poststructural theories challenging the classical image of thought--as hinged upon a representational logic identifying entities in a rigid sense--when formulating a problem concerning the gap between knowledge and the object of…