Philosophy
and Religion, Part 8
Pedagogy
In the
first sentence of Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of The Oppressed” (attached, pleased
find Chapter 1, or use the link below) Freire “problematises” humanisation.
“But while both humanization and dehumanization
are real alternatives, only the first is the people's vocation,” says Freire.
This
immediately places Freire side-by-side with Karl Marx, where Marx in the whole
of “Capital”, and all his life, wanted to restore humanity to itself.
Or again,
as in the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, where Marx wrote: “Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers
on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without
fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the
living flower.”
Here, on
page 3 of Chapter One of the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, is Freire’s answer to
“Dialectical Materialism”:
“… one cannot conceive of objectivity without
subjectivity. Neither can exist without the other, nor can they be
dichotomized. The separation of objectivity from subjectivity, the denial of
the latter when analyzing reality or acting upon it, is objectivism. On the other
hand, the denial of objectivity in analysis or action, resulting in a
subjectivism which leads to solipsistic positions, denies action itself by
denying objective reality. Neither objectivism nor subjectivism, nor yet
psychologism is propounded here, but rather subjectivity and objectivity in
constant dialectical relationship.
Neither objectivism nor subjectivism but rather
subjectivity and objectivity in constant dialectical relationship: this could serve as a one-sentence
summary of our course on Philosophy and Religion. Freire goes on, while explicitly
embracing his connection with Marx:
“To deny the importance of subjectivity in the
process of transforming the world and history is naive and simplistic. It is to
admit the impossible: a world without people. This objectivistic position is as
ingenuous as that of subjectivism, which postulates people without a world.
World and human beings do not exist apart from each other, they exist in
constant interaction. Man does not espouse such a dichotomy; nor does any other
critical, realistic thinker. What Marx criticized and scientifically destroyed
was not subjectivity, but subjectivism and psychologism.”
The
significance of the Subject in Freire’s theoretical scheme is clear all the way
through and is demonstrated by these words from the last paragraph of his
Chapter 1:
“Teachers and students (leadership and people),
co-intent on reality, are both Subjects, not only in the task of unveiling that
reality and thereby coming to know it critically, but in the task of
re-creating that knowledge. As they attain this knowledge of reality through
common reflection and action, they discover themselves as its permanent
re-creators.”
The
Communists, in their own minds and in their intentions, seek to educate,
organise and mobilise, not so as to command the working class and the general
masses, but to set them free.
The problem
of how to do so is exactly the problem that Freire addresses in “The Pedagogy
of the Oppressed.” It requires the formulation quoted above: “World and human beings do not exist apart
from each other, they exist in constant interaction.” Nowhere does Freire
refer to materialism, whether dialectical or otherwise. He writes about
leadership and people both being Subjects, and co-intent on reality.
This is the
interface that gives meaning to both education and to politics, and it is
rooted in philosophy.
We are
talking of revolutionary pedagogy. We are talking here of teaching with a
purpose and a reason that anyone can understand (i.e. “intentionality”) - especially
the students. We are talking of liberation. In South Africa this is called
“people’s education for people’s power”.
In the next
chapter we will dwell upon the dreadful mistakes that can be made if we fall
into the errors of what Freire calls “the banking theory of education”.
- The above is to introduce the original reading-text: Pedagogy of The
Oppressed, Chapter 1, 1970, Freire.
- To download any of the CU courses in PDF files please click here.
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