Abstract
This paper presents an approach to bildung that stands in contrast to the widely held concept of bildung as personal development and enculturation that is bound to the medium of concepts and categories. This paper argues that we need to understand what nature does to us, when we are in and with nature. In other words, nature in and around us has a more foundational role to play in human bildung than we (can) see through the quantitative and conceptual recognition of nature.
According to Merleau-Ponty (MP), a main problem with the way human tries to understand nature is that we either understand nature in terms of the positivistic approach of the natural sciences or in terms of the constructivist paradigm, where nature is understood through cultural systems of meaning and symbols. According to MP, a lot of what constitute nature is left in the dark by these two approaches.
In pedagogical approaches to nature, nature is mainly described and explained by scientific concepts, or it is given cultural meaning. The problem with both approaches is that the nature is approached through relations that can be characterized as knowledge relations or normative relations. When nature is given a pedagogical significance that is not in terms of knowledge or normative relations it is often due to the effects on mental and physical health and thriving.
The purpose of this paper is to sketch a nature bildung based on Merlau-Ponty’s ontology, that he worked on in his unfinished manuscript The visible and the invisible (1968). In this work, the chiasm is a central concept, with which MP seek to transcend the subject-object dichotomy by dissolving the distinction between the inside and the outside, between human and nature. In his chiasmic thinking, MP shows how we ought to understand human as becoming nature and nature as becoming human.
It is not we who perceive, it is the thing that perceives itself yonder— it is not we who speak, it is truth that speaks itself at the depths of speech------Becoming-nature of man which is the becoming-man of nature------The world is a field, and as such is always open. (MP, 1968, s. 187)
References:
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1968). The visible and the invisible. Evanston: Nothern University Press
According to Merleau-Ponty (MP), a main problem with the way human tries to understand nature is that we either understand nature in terms of the positivistic approach of the natural sciences or in terms of the constructivist paradigm, where nature is understood through cultural systems of meaning and symbols. According to MP, a lot of what constitute nature is left in the dark by these two approaches.
In pedagogical approaches to nature, nature is mainly described and explained by scientific concepts, or it is given cultural meaning. The problem with both approaches is that the nature is approached through relations that can be characterized as knowledge relations or normative relations. When nature is given a pedagogical significance that is not in terms of knowledge or normative relations it is often due to the effects on mental and physical health and thriving.
The purpose of this paper is to sketch a nature bildung based on Merlau-Ponty’s ontology, that he worked on in his unfinished manuscript The visible and the invisible (1968). In this work, the chiasm is a central concept, with which MP seek to transcend the subject-object dichotomy by dissolving the distinction between the inside and the outside, between human and nature. In his chiasmic thinking, MP shows how we ought to understand human as becoming nature and nature as becoming human.
It is not we who perceive, it is the thing that perceives itself yonder— it is not we who speak, it is truth that speaks itself at the depths of speech------Becoming-nature of man which is the becoming-man of nature------The world is a field, and as such is always open. (MP, 1968, s. 187)
References:
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1968). The visible and the invisible. Evanston: Nothern University Press
Originalsprog | Engelsk |
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Publikationsdato | 9 sep. 2023 |
Status | Udgivet - 9 sep. 2023 |
Begivenhed | PEA Pedagogy Ecology and the Arts conference - Villa San Marco, Merano, Italien Varighed: 8 sep. 2023 → 9 sep. 2023 https://www.peaconference.org |
Konference
Konference | PEA Pedagogy Ecology and the Arts conference |
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Lokation | Villa San Marco |
Land/Område | Italien |
By | Merano |
Periode | 08/09/23 → 09/09/23 |
Internetadresse |
Emneord
- dannelse
- bæredygtighed
- naturdannelse
- naturforståelse
- natursyn