Basics, Part 1c
Pedagogy
is the Revolutionary Instrument
“While the problem of humanization has always, from an
axiological [Axiology: The philosophical
study of value] point of view, been humankind's central problem, it
now takes on the character of an inescapable concern.1 Concern for humanization
leads at once to the recognition of dehumanization, not only as an ontological
possibility but as an historical reality And as an individual perceives the
extent of dehumanization, he or she may ask if humanization is a viable
possibility. Within history in concrete, objective contexts, both humanization
and dehumanization are possibilities for a person as an uncompleted being
conscious of their incompletion.
“But while both humanization and dehumanization are real
alternatives, only the first is the people's vocation. This vocation is constantly
negated, yet it is affirmed by that very negation. It is thwarted by injustice,
exploitation, oppression, and the violence of the oppressors; it is affirmed by
the yearning of the oppressed for freedom and justice, and by their struggle to
recover their lost humanity.”
Thus begins Chapter 1 of Paul Freire’s masterpiece, “The
Pedagogy of the Oppressed” (attached).
This “Basics” course has recently been criticised for not
introducing any so-called “tools of analysis” or “dialectical materialism”. It
is true that these things are not specifically dealt with until the CU course
on Philosophy and Religion.
But it is not true that there is no philosophy in the “Basics” course. It
starts right here at the beginning, with Paulo Freire, and it is very profound
and very advanced.
Although he never professes to be a Marxist, Paulo Freire is
from the start of this book advocating the recovery of lost humanity, which is
the fundamental intention of Karl Marx’s master-work, “Capital”.
Marx, by the way, was not a “dialectical materialist”.
Marx’s understanding of the dialectical realationship between the human subject
and the objective material world corresponded exactly to these two paragraphs
from page 6 of the attached booklet:
“To present this radical demand for the objective
transformation of reality to combat subjectivist immobility which would divert
the recognition of oppression into patient waiting for oppression to disappear
by itself is not to dismiss the role of subjectivity in the struggle to change
structures. On the contrary 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.
“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. Just as objective social
reality exists not by chance, but as the product of human action, so it is not
transformed by chance. If humankind produce social reality (which in the
"inversion of the praxis" turns back upon them and conditions them),
then transforming that reality is an historical task, a task for humanity.”
These paragraphs assert that there is no priority of the
objective or material world over the subjective human consciousness. Freire is
highly preoccupied with the subject-object relationship, and insists “that the
concrete situation which begets oppression must be transformed” (p.5). But the
people’s vocation is humanisation, says Freire. Transforming social reality is
an historical task, a task for humanity. This is the first item business that
we have before us as human beings, and our “only effective instrument is a
humanizing pedagogy.”
This last phrase comes from the final paragraphs of Chapter
1 of “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, which are here given in full:
“The struggle begins with men's recognition that they have
been destroyed. Propaganda, management, manipulation - all arms of domination -
cannot be the instruments of their rehumanization. The only effective
instrument is a humanizing pedagogy in which the revolutionary leadership
establishes a permanent relationship of dialogue with the oppressed. In a
humanizing pedagogy the method ceases to be an instrument by which the teachers
(in this instance, the revolutionary leadership) can manipulate the students
(in this instance, the oppressed), because it expresses the consciousness of
the students themselves.
The method is, in fact, the external form of
consciousness manifest in acts, which takes on the fundamental property of
consciousness - its intentionality. The essence of consciousness is being with
the world, and this behavior is permanent and unavoidable. Accordingly
consciousness is in essence a 'way towards' something apart from itself outside
itself, which surrounds it and which it apprehends by means of its ideational capacity
Consciousness is thus by definition a method, in the most general sense of the
word. [Alvaro Vieira Pinto, from a work in
preparation on the philosophy of science.]
“A revolutionary leadership must accordingly practice
co-intentional education. 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. In this way, the presence of the oppressed in the struggle for
their liberation will be what it should be: not pseudo-participation, but
committed involvement.”
Not only does this explain the basis upon which the entire
Communist University project been built. It is also a fully-worked-out manual
for day-to-day revolutionary practice. It tells you, directly, what to do.
In the course of Freire’s development of his argument and
even in the few paragraphs quoted in this introduction, above, Freire explains
a great deal of philosophy, including the subject and the object, and
dialectics.
But he does so in a way that is immediately linked to the
practical way forward, and this is why Paulo Freire’s writing serves as a
better introduction to philosophy in our Basics course than Engels would be, or
“Dialego”, for that matter.
- The above is to
introduce the original reading-text: Paulo
Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970, Chapter 1.
- To download any of the CU courses in PDF files please click here.
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