Experiencing Change, Encountering the Unknown: An Education in ‘Negative Capability’ in Light of Buddhism and Levinas
Journal of Philosophy of Education May 1, 2015 DOI: 10.1111/1467-9752.12139 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism Meditation |
| Keywords | Impermanence Sensibility Alterity Epistemology Openness to experience Reading process Perspective graphical Order exchange Theology Law |
| Citations | 64 |
| Key points | Argues that integrating Levinas's ethics of alterity with Theravada Buddhist teachings on impermanence and non-self cultivates a 'negative capability' that can reorient educational ethics toward embracing uncertainty. |
Abstract
Levinas and Theravada Buddhism across and through their differences in order to rethink an education that is committed to 'negative capability' and the sensibility to uncertainty that this entails. In fleshing this out, I first explore Buddhist ideas of impermanence, suffering and non-self (anicca, dukkha, and anatta, respectively), known as the three marks of existence, from the perspective of Theravada Buddhism. I explore in particular vipassana meditation's insistence on openness to the transient nature of experience and self, and the notion of 'encounter' that is implied therein. I then interweave this with Levinas's notion of an ethics of alterity. I argue that taken in tandem, both provide the condition through which another kind of ethical sensibility can be developed-that is, one that is attuned to our encounters with the world. In conclusion, the article reflects on how this sensibility as 'negative capability' can re-inform an ethics of educational practices, which are by nature themselves necessarily involved with change and uncertainty.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |