Session Information
13 SES 13, Contemplative Pedagogy and Moral Perceptions
Research Workshop
Contribution
Moral philosophy and moral education has prominently dealt with cognitive and rational aspects of morality, therefore neglecting the body. This kind of approach is here termed as "ethical know-what" (Varela) and it can also be described as a part of the general "asomatic attitude" (Boisvert) of western philosophy. Our paper claims this perspective is essentially incomplete for moral education. Moral action involves also human body as cognitions do not take place only in the mind, but also in, by and through the body as well. The article engages in opening moral education's relation to bodily experience by situating phenomenological studies of the lived body (Merleau-Ponty) in relation to contemplative pedagogy. We deal primarily with the concept of moral perception in order to open up a reflexive space for the bodily tenets of ethics. This includes understanding the body not as an object to be manipulated, but as our first person experience of our bodily attunement to the world. We also consider ethical know-how and examine it from the aspect of moral perception as Lawrence Blum has characterized it. This leads us to ask how ethical know-how might be learned in practices of contemplative pedagogy. Therefore we turn to Timo Klemola?s analyses of contemplative practices in order to refine the bodily and practical tenets of ethical know-how. Finally, we examine some of the implications that contemplative pedagogy and practice might have for epistemology and for our understanding of ethics in education.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Blum, L. 1991. Moral Perception and Particularity. Ethics Vol. 101, No. 4, pp.701-725. Boisvert, R. D.: 1998, John Dewey: Rethinking Our Time, SUNY Press, Albany, NY. Hart, T. 2004. Opening the Contemplative Mind in the Classroom. Journal of Transformative Education. Vol. 2 No. 1, 28-46. Klemola, T. 2005. Taidon filosofia - filosofian taito. Tampere: Tampere University Press. Merleau-Ponty, M. 1992. The phenomenology of perception. London: Routledge. Varela, F. 1999. Ethical Know-How. Action, Wisdom, and Cognition. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
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