Ethical Values in Education: A Cosmopolitan Perspective

• In Event: 35.063 - Revitalizing Ethical Education in Today's Globalizing Ethos

Abstract

This presentation introduces a cosmopolitan perspective that can help young people generate ethical values through the ways they conduct themselves. The theoretical backbone of this perspective takes two assumptions as points of departure for thinking about ethical education. First, it starts from the assumption that we live in a globalized world, where conditions of impermanence (manifest as social acceleration, rapid transformations in means of production, etc.) and interconnectedness (the interdependence of economic and political systems, ease and speed of communication and travel across distances, and more) exist on a path of continuing intensification. Second, it assumes that ethical values are historical and cultural formations that develop through processes of iterative experimental inquiry. I argue that cultivating a mindful attitude towards the ways in which conduct shapes ethical values, especially the ways in which we respond to encounters across difference, constitutes an orientation that is characteristically cosmopolitan.

The first part of the presentation introduces a series of theoretical resources to help us think about the nature and dynamics of values in a world increasingly interconnected and impermanent. I rely on John Dewey’s theory of inquiry (and his theory of value inquiry in particular) to illuminate the process by means of which in our dealings with problematic situations we help us sustain, reshape, and even bring new values into the world. I highlight the distinction Dewey makes among accommodation, adaptation, and adjustment. As we face a problematic situation, we are confronted with normative tensions and demands to respond. In accommodation, we change our conduct to meet the demands of the situation; in adaptation, we change environing conditions to conform to our needs; in adjustment, we creatively transform both self and environment to restore equilibrium to the situation. Dewey’s insight is that it is in adjustment that new values are brought into the world.

The second part of the presentation develops the Deweyan concept of adjustment in its significance for cosmopolitanism. I argue that the ethical significance of a cosmopolitan orientation is neither transcendence of particular normative points of view towards moral universals, nor tolerance of diverse moral perspectives, but the capacity to generate ethical values from encounters with difference. The claim is that the capacity for mindfulness about the ways in which our conduct contributes to the transformation of ethical values, and the capacity to bring about new values from encounters with difference can be cultivated through education. I argue that such capacities can be instrumental for fostering humane and just relationships across cultures in a globalized world.

This paper helps break new theoretical ground by introducing the Deweyan theory of value inquiry in the context of contemporary debates on cosmopolitan education and ethics, placing the question of the creation of ethical values at the center of the conversation.

Author

• Gonzalo Obeillero, Teachers College, Columbia University