Being human
From Studyplace
Contents |
[edit] Being human educates. . .
There is lots of attention paid to cultural relativism in educational discourse. But does cultural relativism do justice to the common features of human experience? Are there not still basic qualities, needs, desires, etc. that are common to all human beings? Is making such matters clear an important project in a digital commons? This article aims to provide a platform to discuss internal-essentialist views of human life, and to explore the implications of such a view for pedagogical practice.
Martha Nussbaum's Defense of Aristotelian Essentialism provides a good point of departure.[1] Nussbaum aims to specify the common parts of any life taken to be a human life. In this way, she aims to spell out the most basic human commonalities — what being human in fact entails — from an internal-essentialist, non-metaphysical position in real historical space. In an attempt to start a broader discussion aimed at identifying basic human commonalities, I have depicted part of Nussbaum's framework below, focusing on her articulation of "the shape of the human form of life." Hopefully it provides an interesting benchmark for conversation. In what ways might the listed qualities/characteristics be taken as the most basic answers to the question that drives StudyPlace, What educates?
[edit] Nussbaum's components of The Shape of the Human Form of Life
- Mortality
- The human body
- Hunger and thirst
- Need for shelter
- Sexual desire
- Mobility
- Capacity for pleasure and pain
- Cognitive capability: perceiving, imagining, thinking
- Early infant development
- Practical reason
- Affiliation with other human beings
- Relatedness to other species and to nature
- Humor and play
- Separateness
[edit] References
- ↑ For a succinct articulation see Nussbaum, M. (1992). Human Flourishing and Social Justice: In Defense of Aristotelian Essentialism. Political Theory, 20, pp. 202-246. Accessible for Columbia users via Columbia JSTOR or via the JSTOR permanent link. See pp. 216-223 for her articulation of the framework above.
