Tubbs, Nigel (1992) Hegel and the dialectic of enlightenment : the recognition of education in civil society. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis develops an Hegelian philosophy of education by presenting
the concept as the comprehension of the dialectic of enlightenment. It
begins by examining recent critical theory of education which has
employed Habermas's idea of communicative action in order to reassess
the relationship between education and political critique. It goes on
to expose the flaws in this approach by uncovering its uncritical use
of critique as the method of enlightenment. Enlightenment as overcoming
presupposes enlightenment as absolute education. The philosophical
issues raised here are then substantially examined by returning to
Habermas in order to trace the presupposition of critique as method in
his theorizing. It is argued that Habermas also presupposes critique as
absolute enlightenment, or overcoming, in both the emancipatory
knowledge-constitutive interest and in The Theory of Communicative
Action, and further, that it is this presupposition which returns as
the contradiction of the dialectic of enlightenment in his work.
Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment is then itself
examined along with Adorno's Negative Dialectics. Here it is argued
that although this work marks an educational and philosophical
development over Habermas, nevertheless its authors also presuppose the
identity of enlightenment, this time in the claim that the dialectic of
enlightenment, and negative dialectics, are not a determinate negation.
The thesis shows how Habermas and Adorno, in their respective views of
the dialectic of enlightenment, repeat but do not comprehend the selfdetermination
which is the actual in Hegelian philosophy. The final
chapter of the thesis employs Hegelian philosophy to re-examine the
aporia of education as method. It argues that the dialectic of
enlightenment is actual when it is recognized as the self-education of
philosophical consciousness, and is the identity and non-identity which
is the concept. The implications of Hegelian philosophy of education as
the recognition of misrecognition are then explored, first with regard
to rethinking the identity of the teacher in civil society and
developing the concept as ethical pedagogy; and then to recognizing
critique as comprehensive education with regard to the state in civil
society.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Education -- Philosophy, Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831 -- Criticism and interpretation, Enlightenment
Official Date:	September 1992
Dates:	Date Event September 1992 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Rose, Gillian
Extent:	iii, 303 leaves
Language:	eng

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