TERROR AND THE ROLE OF EDUCATION: A KANTIAN RESPONSE TO A MILITANT UTOPIAN CRITIQUE OF THE PREVAILING CULTURE OF POLITICS
TERROR AND THE ROLE OF EDUCATION: A KANTIAN RESPONSE TO A MILITANT UTOPIAN CRITIQUE OF THE PREVAILING CULTURE OF POLITICS

Summary/Abstract: Henry Giroux, one of the more prominent representatives of critical pedagogy, argues against what he calls the neoliberal culture of politics, which he thinks is detrimental for people and their possibilities to grow as human beings in education and elsewhere. He wants to replace it with what he calls the militant utopian culture of politics, which he believes will release people from the chains of the prevailing culture of politics and make the world a better place. I argue, however, first that the suggested final end, a world without terror, extreme inequality and war, cannot be achieved through his alternative view of politics, namely militant utopianism, second that it does not consider the magnitude of the challenges it faces, and finally that it is over-enthusiastic and naïve. I also argue with Immanuel Kant that even though the highest good in the world is an object of morality, there is no guarantee that we ever will achieve it; it is only something we can gradually approach. Education for cosmopolitanism is therefore an open-ended and never-ending process.

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