Socrates and Tagore against Trump
"Even if our sole concern were national economic growth, we would have to protect humanistic education." This is stated by the American philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum (New York, 1947), according to whom, in schools and universities worldwide, the exact opposite is happening: the humanities (literature, history, philosophy, etc.), as well as the arts, are increasingly scorned, if not directly eliminated. What is happening to us? Nussbaum is in no way against hard sciences or technological knowledge. But she warns against the error of despising humanistic knowledge and the critical thinking associated with it. And she warns that, at the same time as the curriculum is being stripped of humanistic elements, the pedagogy of memorization is being reimposed (obviously, this does not mean she rejects all memorization).
In the essay "Not for Profit" (translated by Dolors Udina for Arcàdia), the author asks "why democracy needs the humanities" and analyzes how, on the contrary, they are being sidelined, particularly focusing on the United States and India, two realities she knows well. "If we do not insist on the crucial importance of the arts and humanities, we will let them die because they do not make money." At least they do not make it directly: but indirectly they greatly improve private and public organizations because they train creative people, with the ability to innovate, to dialogue and work in teams, to combine practical spirit with ethical values, to commit to the common good, to give meaning to their work. In short, to give meaning to life.
Nussbaum constructs this work with the help of Socrates and Rabindranath Tagore. She also focuses on the pedagogical ideas of Rousseau and John Dewey. "From the 18th century onwards, various thinkers from Europe, North America, and especially India began to move away from the educational model based on memorization and to propose experiences in which children were active and critical participants." They were all inspired by the Socratic ideal: to know oneself inwardly, to be responsible for one's own actions, to think for oneself. Knowledge and critical thinking. "Not even the most intelligent and well-prepared [university] students learn to dismantle an argument without patient preparation," with much dedication from the teaching staff, and not only through lectures, but also through intensive exchange in small seminar groups.
Tagore, Nobel Prize winner in literature in 1913, was a Socratic. He promoted educational change in India, especially by introducing music, fine arts, theater, and dance into schools. Today in his country, governed by the conservative ultranationalist Modi, his ideas are being ignored with impunity. He was a great dancer and choreographer. Amita Sen, mother of Nobel laureate in economics Amartya Sen, was a student of Tagore's school from a very young age: her father (Amartya's grandfather), an expert in the history of Hinduism, taught there. She was also a good dancer, and as an adult, she dedicated a book to her school experience and to Tagore, in which she remarks that artistic training "demands discipline and ambition." Children cannot be left to play and dance on their own. In both humanities and arts, the Socratic secret lies in cultivating students' "inner eyes": making them ask questions about who they are, what they are doing in the world, and what they want to do in life. This requires a lot of work, for both teachers and students.
Why did the United States progress so much in the 20th century? Because "they have not had an educational model oriented solely towards economic growth." University education, even today, despite Trump's blows, which are doing a lot of damage, is based on the arts and humanities. For the first two years, students, whatever they study, must take compulsory subjects in these fields. It is not a matter of elitism, but of democracy: of creating informed, independent citizens, receptive to new developments and the plurality of the world.
On the other hand, according to Nussbaum, today in both India and Europe, universities are focused on "economic growth", on creating competent technology and a business elite. Education for democracy is ignored, human development (the fight against inequality) is ignored. In short, (critical) thought and social and human complexity are ignored.
How is all this ignored? Well, according to Nussbaum, with myths of purity, with the simplistic view of a world of good guys and bad guys. She explains it through the "pathology of disgust" stemming from the basic narcissistic anxiety of children, "His Majesty the Baby", as Freud called it. With the complicity of parents, anything that doesn't fit their desires for perfection is rejected: thus, a flawless, pure "self" or "us" is created, against a dirty, bad, contaminated "you" or "them".
Well, the humanities and the arts vaccinate us against this feeling of purity, they lead us towards empathy, towards coexistence with difference. Rousseau showed this with his Émile, teaching him to negotiate with the world he inhabited. We boast about freedom of expression and respect for difference, but "distracted by the pursuit of wealth, we increasingly demand more from our schools [and universities] to become useful generators of profit instead of forming reflective citizens". Are we in time to save education and democracy? Are we in time to recover the taste and pleasure for the humanities?
