ERIC Number: EJ1248848
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1744-9642
EISSN: N/A
Politics as a Model of Pedagogy in Spinoza
Steinberg, Justin
Ethics and Education, v15 n2 p158-172 2020
In this paper, I argue that Spinoza's political theory gives us a model for how he might have approached a treatise on moral education. Indeed, his account of the method and aims of politics resembles Renaissance humanist rhetorical approaches to pedagogy -- particularly, the work of sixteenth century Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives -- so strongly that it is hardly an exaggeration conclude that, for him, politics is education writ large. For Spinoza and for Vives, the governor-or-instructor must study the prevailing character, or "ingenium," of the subject and adopt means that promote the cognitive and emotional development of the subject, which can be accomplished only to the extent that subjects willingly participate in their own governance-or-instruction. Spinoza joins this rhetorical procedure to a Hobbesian scientific approach to studying "ingenia," resulting in a political method that is part science, part art.
Descriptors: Models, Teaching Methods, Political Attitudes, Moral Development, Moral Values, Ethical Instruction, Governance, Educational Philosophy, Politics, Emotional Development, Cognitive Development, Religious Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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