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Conference

French

ID: <

10670/1.2201vw

>

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From Godwin to Krishnamurti: political and social issues among liberal pedagogues

Abstract

The social issue, formulated centrally by the liberal pedagogues of the 19th century and the first half of the next century, becomes particularly interesting as it goes beyond the usual time span attributed to her. It is worth placing these political formulations in the slow pace of the history of ideas, particularly with regard to William Godwin’s pioneering thinking (1756-1836), and even more to explore the libertarian experience in the wake of and in response to the educational sociologies developed after 1789, most often combining educational progress with a strong and prescriptive state presence. Paradoxically, Charles Fourrier (1768-1830) is constructing his social harmony by drawing inspiration from Rousseau and above all Pestalozzi, two sources favoured by official pedagogy, thus pointing to a certain porosity between less hermetic borders which may be presumed by the violence of certain speeches. What should be taught, to whom, how, and above all for what purposes? To answer these questions, the most representative liberal pedagogues such as Leon Tolstoï (1828-1910), Paul Robin (1837-1912), Francisco Ferrer (1859-1909), Sébastien Faure (1858-1942) or Alexander Neill (1883-1973) tried to (re) think of an educational space without apparatus, without a state guaranteeing normative knowledge and perceived as authoritarian and alienating. By practising ‘full education’ as a response to the multiple dangers of specialisation and competition, Robin sets the benchmark of an unprecedented educational and social experience, which seeks above all equality through access to ‘hand and spirit’ education. This article will seek to better understand how the social issue has been addressed by philosophers, thinkers or education practitioners who have sought — and this is their common denominator — to establish a proactive and comprehensive education system most often designed outside the official institutions: in other words, a system based on new socio-political data aimed at releasing the learner from his/her determinisms and thus allowing him to confuse himself as an autonomous person. The first step will be to analyse the interplay of the social issue among the precursors of libertarian thought, in particular Godwin, Max Stirner (1806-1856), Socialists in 1848 and the neuchâtelois James Guillaume (1844-1916), a key figure of the AIT’s Jiddu Buisson teaching and instructional dictionary, a key figure of the AIT jurassian and anti-authoritarian federation (−), before turning to Europe to briefly study the political and social questions of thinker Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986). It will then be necessary to understand developments in the social issue over time, focusing on the idea of updating and influencing. Finally, we will question the legacy and receptions of the social advances that have been theorised and quite often put into practice by liberal pedagogues, in order to shed light on the misappropriated formulations which the official school authorities have silently attempted to add a seemingly state presence in order to absorb them.

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