Previous Fora / 2003

Speakers

Knowledge-based society

How and why there is a specific relation with knowledge in Europe

Professor Chantal Delsol,
Professor of Philosophy, France

Abstract

In my presentation I would like to explain how and why there is a specific relation with knowledge in Europe.

All ancient civilisations, including the European civilisation as well, had holistic societies. They gave more importance to the community than to the human person. For this reason, their education was "initiation education" and it is still the case now-a-days in Africa or in Asian countries.

But in Europe during the Revival a new type of education came to the fore, advocated by, among others, Jan Comenius andJuan-Luis Vives: the "education of initiative". In this form of education the human person has more importance than the common truth. This development in Europe is the result of the specificity of the European philosophy and philosophical anthropology: the worth of the human person, which comes from the Christian vision of man. By this way the European societies have become individualistic societies.

I will describe these two different types of affiliation with knowledge, the difference between "education of initiation" and "education of initiative", and their mening in terms of Society.