6 September 2002
The American form of government, characterized by a federal republican system in which citizens elect officials and representatives at multiple levels or power and function, is dependent upon the participation in the public forum by an educated and critically thinking electorate. Failure to meet this condition results in the election of government officials who, whether through corruption by powerful interest groups or by outright tyranny, fail to represent the interests of the population. Given this potential for failure without the informed participation by the population, not only does each citizen have the responsibility to contribute to the public debate, but such participation ranges from meaningless to dangerous without adequate education of each citizen.
Martha Nussbaum expands upon the importance of cultivating a community of critical thinkers in the introduction to Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. The demands on the individual made by the nature of the modern world require an increased cultivation of the mind through liberal education. Nussbaum describes "liberal education" as the cultivation of an individual, capable of intelligently participating in debates about issues in an inescapably multicultural and multinational world (8). An individual, so cultivated, would be a "world citizen," whose first loyalty would be to the ideal of humanity and to human life across the globe (9).
To achieve such a goal, Nussbaum proposes that three characteristics need be cultivated in each student. First, in the student should be cultivated the capacity for critical self examination. The individual so educated will question her own beliefs, accepting only those "...that survive reason’s demand for consistency and for justification..." (9). Second, Nussbaum argues that the educated citizen need see herself foremost as a citizen of humanity, rather than merely a member of a regional or ideological group, and that all human beings are "...bound to all other human beings by recognition and concern" (10). Third, the student need develop the ability to utilize a "narrative imagination," that is the capability to imagine oneself in another's place. This ability would allow the citizen to derive a sympathetic understanding of the conditions that prompt another individual's viewpoint, thus strengthening the citizen’s ability to affect a meaningful dialogue with or about the examined individual (10-11). Through this model, Nussbaum hopes "...to produce free citizens, citizens who are free not because of wealth or birth, but because they can call their minds their own" (293).
In the article, "Liberal Education as Moral Education," Victor Worsfold expands upon an implicit theme in Nussbaum's argument, stating explicitly that the goal of liberal education, so outlined, is a moral education. The decision to educate students in a manner which encourages critical debate, echoing Socratic self-examination, provides them with the "...moral stance of self-respect..." in which the citizen is able to participate in a rational debate and be willing, given the presence of rational evidence to counter her position, to reexamine and perhaps revise that position (19). Worsfold addresses Nussbaum's concept of the "world citizen," stating that this goal is only achieved through the acquisition of the "...morality of good will, tolerance, and... mutual respect" (21). To Nussbaum's concept of the "narrative imagination," Worsfold attests to the clear presence of morality in the ability to sympathize with the conditions faced by another: the morality of caring 22). To Worsfold, Nussbaum's tripartite elements of a liberal education "...amount to... the inculcation of moral character by liberal educators in their students. (24)"
Given the reliance upon public debate in the functioning of the American system of government, a citizen, educated under Nussbaum's model, would bring to the forum a critical perspective, tempered by the morals of good will, tolerance, mutual respect, and caring. The contributions of such a citizen would not only possess the benefits of a rational foundation, further enhanced through critical examination, but would also benefit from being forged by an individual possessing the morality to hope to protect the safety and well-being of all humanity, a true citizen of the world.
Nussbaum, Martha C. Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1997.
Worsfold, Victor. "Liberal Education as Moral Education." Perspectives 29.2 (1999): 13-27.
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