Under the influence of science, modern civilization has adopted the
view that only things that can be verified empirically or arrived
at rationally are true. Modern people tend to regard themselves as
mechanisms, without any subjective aspects to their nature. In this
insightful and passionately concerned book, British educationist
and man of letters David Holbrook retorts persuasively that this
reductive view of human nature is profoundly false. Man's inner,
subjective life is essential to his nature, what happens to his
consciousness is the most important thing in his life, and his
greatest need is to find meaning.Holbrook also warns that
reductionism has pernicious, even lethal, cultural, social, and
political consequences. The logical result is nihilism: if human
beings and existence are but physical mechanisms, it necessarily
follows that consciousness does not exist, life is meaningless, our
concern with moral values is pointless, and so are our lives and
actions. Life itself reduces to nothing but self-indulgence and
self-assertion. A culture informed by this perspective is
necessarily full of expressions of hate and meaninglessness, which
coarsens and demoralizes the majority of the population and worsens
the mental pathologies of unstable persons. "Egoistical nihilism"
becomes ever more widespread, and a decent society becomes
impossible.Holbrook advances a keenly insightful and eloquent
critique of the radical individualism of Max Stirner's famous tract
The Ego and His Own. Stirner's worldview, he argues, is grounded in
psychopathology and takes the nihilist assumptions of modernity to
their logical conclusion: "the unique one" totally detached from
society and reducing others to mere means to his ends, fair game
for exploitation unfettered by ethical considerations. Ominously,
he notes, the Stirnerean attitude toward existence is becoming
increasingly common. Against the reductive perspective of
positivism, Holbrook argues that scientific investigations
establish the reality of meaning and of values rooted in love. He
calls for a reaffirmation of both.Originally published in 1977,
Education, Nihilism, and Survival speaks prophetically and even
more urgently to us today. The worsening coarseness, nihilism, and
brutality of our culture, the partisan fanaticisms and widespread
alienation and apathy of our politics, and horrors such as school
shootings reveal the consequences of radical
individualism.Education, Nihilism, and Survival will be of interest
to well-educated general readers concerned at the state of culture
and society; educators alarmed at harmful approaches in education;
and psychologists and philosophers concerned about existentialism,
Stirner's egoist philosophy, and the need for meaningful,
philosophical anthropology.
General
Imprint: |
Routledge
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
November 2017 |
First published: |
2002 |
Authors: |
Ernest Krausz
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
180 |
Edition: |
2nd edition |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-138-52270-1 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Education >
Philosophy of education
|
LSN: |
1-138-52270-8 |
Barcode: |
9781138522701 |
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