Paul Ricoeur: Empowering Education, Politics and Society (SpringerBriefs on Key Thinkers in Education)

This open access book employs Paul Ricoeur's methodologies to identify, challenge, and replace with responsible language the many continuing abuses of power, including in the university curriculum and in the international discourse of right-wing populism. Using Ricoeur’s philosophy, the book provides a meta-frame for current debates about the university and a pragmatic micro-frame for supporting staff and students to develop important conversations on campus. It introduces the Community of Inquiry approach and describes its use to engage with complex ideas on which society has recently become silent. By contrasting Ricoeur’s work on Algeria and his work in Chicago, USA, .a bias blind spot is revealed in his desire for dialectical balance and reciprocity. This prevented him (and for some years the author) from accepting the connections between colonialism, slavery and racism and the urgent need for reparative justice. With Ricoeur, the readers can think differently: howto recognize and tackle racism and the democratic deficit, how to reduce epistemic injustice by learning how to speak out, how to move away from forced polarities and develop a pedagogy of hope as well as an acceptance of provisionality and the intractability of certain existential problems. Preface Acknowledgments Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Ricœur, Concerns and Objectives 1.2 Economic Inequality and the Modern University: 1968 and Today 1.3 Understanding the Other 1.4 Populism’s Binaries and Ricœur 1.5 Free Speech and ‘Populism’s Pincer Grip’ 1.6 Structure of This Book References 2 The Idea of the University 2.1 The University as Marketplace 2.2 Ricœur’s Idea of the University 2.3 Discrimination on Campus 2.4 Discrimination Against Colour 2.5 The Culture Wars and Wokeness 2.6 Endless Distraction and Inaction 2.7 Wael Hallaq 2.8 Secularism and Islam References 3 Communities of Inquiry 3.1 Communicating and Acting 3.2 Challenging the Curriculum on Discrimination 3.3 Communities of Inquiry 3.4 Key Guidelines for Communities of Inquiry 3.5 Practical Outcomes 3.6 Group Work 3.7 Rhetoric: Plato’s Gorgias Dialogue 3.8 Communities of Inquiry Sample: Challenging Callicles References 4 Ricœur’s Early Language, Activism and Algeria 4.1 Colonialism’s Legacy in the Muslim World 4.2 Young Ricœur and Colonial Influence 4.3 Ricœur’s Philosophical Toolkit 4.4 Algeria and Empire 4.5 Ricœur Versus Sartre: L’insoumission (Insubordination) 4.6 Methodological Dialectics and Hermeneutics 4.7 Linguistic Analysis and Structuralism as Method 4.8 Activism Beyond Negation 4.9 Communities of Inquiry Sample: Discussing Decolonisation References 5 1968 and Campus Shock at Nanterre 5.1 What Happened in 1968? 5.2 Ricœur’s Commentaries on the University Crisis: 1968 and Beyond 5.3 Hermeneutics of Suspicion 5.4 The Changes Ricœur Wanted—Then and Now 5.5 Negation and the Feminist Cause 5.6 Ricœur Disappointed References 6 Challenging ‘Bad Infinity’ 6.1 Negative Cultural Imaginings 6.2 Whiteness 6.3 Jim Crow 6.4 The Denied Negative Debt at the Heart of Authoritarian Populism 6.5 ‘Bad Infinity’ and the Unhappy Consciousness 6.6 Racism and Critical Race Theory (CRT) 6.7 Racism: Can Ricœur Help? 6.8 Communities of Inquiry Sample: Are Universities Perpetuating Institutional Racism? References 7 The Politics of Pedagogy Leading to Polity Praxis 7.1 Transcending Binaries and Whiteness—An Outline 7.2 The Fate of Activism? 7.3 Factors Militating Against Communities of Inquiry 7.4 Ricœurian Justice and Current UK Politics 7.5 Pragmatist Probabilities 7.6 Rhetorical Pragmatism 7.7 Religion on Campus: The Politics of Pedagogy 7.8 Polity Praxis: German Case Study on Religious Thinking 7.9 The Politics of Pedagogy: Influencing the Corridors of Power 7.10 Polity Praxis: An All-Party Parliamentary Group References 8 Conclusion References Index