2022 Volume 89 Issue 2 Pages 195-206
In this article, based on suggestions from Kant's Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, we reconsider the teaching materials of moral education. Recent studies on moral education have explored how to use moral education teaching materials, aiming at “making learners consider certain values.” However, these studies emphasize the teachers' “intention” to pre-determine the contents that they aim to teach their learners, in relation to the concept of “mediation.” In this article, considering the possibility that educational contents may be restricted to what meets the teachers' “intention” in the concept of “mediation,” we use a reading of Kant's Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View to propose the concept of an “ordered and undetermined place” as a new conceptual framework for teaching materials which induce learners to consider certain values multilaterally and multidirectionally.
Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View is, unusually among Kant's works, written for a general audience. This is because his anthropology constitutes not only a place indicating the results of his exploration of human beings, but also an educational place in which these results convey to his readers a deep understanding of humanity. This book can be characterized as teaching material in its provision of this educational place. In this article, from this viewpoint, we examine the character of this book as teaching material.
Our discussion clarifies that, first, Kant depicted human beings contrary to his own “intention.” In Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, he emphasizes the importance of demonstrating points of interest which contribute to the understanding of humanity, including those contrary to his own “intention.” Elsewhere, he prepares the ground for a deeper understanding of humanity by introducing order into the composition of the book: the variety and characteristics of humanity are treated as points of interest rather than mere fragments through the demonstration of the themes that give each one significance and the relationships among them, from the overall perspective of the exploration of humanity.
Therefore, we may generalize the character of Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View as teaching material, as an “ordered and undetermined place.” The first characteristic of this concept is leaving educational contents undefined. This means showing multiple aspects of an object, instead of pre-determining what meets our “intentions.” It is possible in this way to make learners think, through the richness of these aspects, that the same value may have various aspects. The second characteristic is arranging various aspects in an ordered place to demonstrate their diversity properly. In other words, we give meaning to various aspects and relate them to one another from a broad perspective so that these aspects do not become mere fragments. We assert that the concept of an “ordered and undetermined place” with these characteristics can induce learners to consider certain values multilaterally and multidirectionally, unlike the concept of “mediation.”
