Crossing Borders Booklet Series Kyoiku no Rinen o Katadoru (Shaping the Principles of Education - An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge in Education)

The German folktale Scheewittchen (Snow White), which is included in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales, features a magic mirror. The strange mirror belonging to the Queen, who is Snow White’s stepmother, answers truthfully to any question asked by the Queen: “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the fairest of them all?” “Thou, O Queen, art the fairest in the land.” This folktale has many implications, one of which is that people seek the truth. This longing for the unembellished truth can be said to be an intrinsic human endeavor.
 
In European Christian thought in the Middle Ages and later, the term speculum was used to refer to the “soul itself” that reflects the unseen but important aletheia (truth). The aletheia that is reflected by this speculum is not “right” that stands as the opposite of “wrong.” Rather, it has been variously described as a transcendental “invisible something.” In the scholasticism of the Middle Ages, scientia (knowledge) was frequently described along with speculum as a means of approaching aletheia.
 
However, the concept of speculum has gradually been forgotten since entering the Modern Era. And, today, information has taken the place of scientia. It appears that information simply represents facts. That is to say, information does not necessarily have to approach aletheia. It just needs to be useful in terms of solving a problem. Similarly, objectivity has value as long as it is useful. This utility has a time limit. Sooner or later, the information loses its usefulness. Useless information ceases to be of interest and is discarded.
 
In an age when knowledge is being supplanted by information and evaluated solely for its utility, it seems that aletheia, which was the subject of discourse in the past, is becoming a relic of a previous era or an antiquated curiosity. Similarly, in the scholarly world, aletheia appears to increasingly be handled as a metaphysical and religious delusion. Education is no exception. It seems that modern education is already being treated as a technical endeavor, to be measured in terms of its usefulness. In other words, education is being conceptualized as a purposeful, rational operation rather than an activity that is essential to life.
 
So long as the mission of education is based on fact for “improving life,” pedagogics will discuss such fact. Of course, this fact entails an “invisible something” that is similar to aletheia of the past; it is for this very reason that an attempt can be made to discuss it. This attempt is underpinned not by reason but, rather, hope if hope is what allows us to continue pursuing truth beyond the point justified by reason. This book, too, is such an attempt.


 

(Written by TANAKA Satoshi, Professor, Graduate School of Education / 2020)