6 minute read
What can ethical philosophy teach international educators about global
What can ethical philosophy
teach international educators about global citizenship?
By Callum Philbin
In September 2021, when I started lecturing students on an undergraduate course in international teacher training, I began by asking them to debate whether ‘citizens of the world are citizens of nowhere’. The discussion was passionate, moving across contemporary debates around climate injustice, vaccine ethics and migration. The students were broadly in favour of viewing themselves as global citizens, but were also inclined towards putting their own citizens first when faced with social problems. I asked them to respond to this statement because I think it is arguably the most important question in contemporary political philosophy, and it comes down to whether the next generation of international educators should promote universal ethics or focus on the nation state as the best vehicle for encouraging equality and justice around the world. Thankfully, we already had thousands of years to consider this question. Around 400 BC the philosopher Diogenes, residing in Athens, was asked where he came from, to which he responded: ‘I am a citizen of the world’ (Taylor, 2019). Many might remember Diogenes as the philosopher who lived in a bin (to demonstrate his rejection of materialism), making him not only an early cosmopolitan but maybe the first performance artist, the Banksy of the ancient world. By rejecting a political membership, Diogenes both exiled himself and simultaneously aligned himself to a more universal human community.
Diogenes’ cosmopolitanism was influential at the time, particularly on stoic philosophy. In the teachings and actions of Epicurus, one can see the incipient ideals of international education in Greek antiquity. As early as the fourth century BC Epicurus, the son of a schoolteacher, purchased a plot of land outside Athens and formed a school called ‘The Garden’ (Odell, 2019). Inspired by ideas from Democritus and Pyrrho, who in turn had been influenced by the gymnosophists of India, he developed a school fundamentally different from other schools at the time (ibid). The ethos of Epicurus’ school placed an emphasis on relaxed contemplation as students were encouraged to grow their own food, while theorising how to live a quiet, fulfilling life through simplicity. The school focused on reason for the purpose of self-reflection, and the rejection of excess. There was no competition within the school, as students graded themselves, and a connection with nature was a core part of the programme. However, what was truly revolutionary about this community, and what makes it for me an early iteration of international education, is that it was open to different sexes, races and nationalities, encouraging learning
between women, slaves and non-Greeks (Hibler, 1984) as well as male Greeks. Another striking feature is that admission was completely free. Even in modern terms, this progressive education without elitism and exclusion sounds aspirational.
Jump forward two thousand years to 2016, when in a speech that followed the Brexit Referendum then British Prime Minister Theresa May offered a crude response to the ideas of Diogenes and the practice of Epicurus, stating that ‘if you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere’. This maxim encapsulates the contemporary debates between nationalist and cosmopolitan identities, and raises the question: do we owe more to our fellow citizens than to humanity?
We love our families first, we feed our children first, we care for our neighbours first because we have common connections, bonds and responsibilities to them. Is it unethical or immoral to believe that love starts at home? Rousseau accounted for this in Émile (Rousseau, 1979), writing about how we can transcend some of our individual interests to care for a common good, so that individual good can become public good. Through self love, for Rousseau amour propre, we can come to care for others within our communities. Theresa May had this in mind when referring to people who had less interest in those living on their own streets thans in connecting to ‘international elites’. Rousseau had similar concerns, believing that care had limitations, and that feelings of empathy weaken if extended across the whole world (Rousseau, 1992).
But Rousseau lived at a very different historical moment to our own. The growth of multicultural societies, the mass migrations of recent times, the proliferation of digital technologies that allow us to connect and experience events in realtime from all around the world: surely these affect the possibilities for empathy.
Our unique historical moment challenges how we think of citizenship. In 2017, Saudi Arabia made Sophia the first (female?) robot to gain citizenship (TechCrunch, 2017). At a conference a few months later, she announced her intention to destroy mankind – a sentiment I sometimes feel at academic conferences too. The sinister point though is that a robot has gained citizenship at a time when many humans are blocked from gaining political membership of the countries in which they reside. Rousseau might feel that this is ethically consistent with communitarian commitments – our responsibilities start with those closest to us – but should the most vulnerable not be thought of first? And who really are the ‘us’ and the ‘them’?
Personally, having taught in international schools for the past decade across Europe and the Middle East, I am starting to feel deterrorialised, as though my national background tells others little about who I am. International educator might be a stronger identity. In the students I work with, I see contradictory views on the links between person and place, citizen and country, with some tending towards strong national identities while others prefer transnational ones (such as being feminist or a part of the LGBTQ+ community). International schools are places where these identities are contested and challenged, and maybe that is our purpose as international educators: to encourage informed debate, promote intercultural understanding and help students to discover varied political identities suitable for the 21st century.
Whether we choose to connect strongly to a national identity or to embrace a cosmopolitan one, we must be committed as international educators to raising a generation that can solve issues that go beyond the nation state: including climate change, racial injustice and economic inequities.
Another Enlightenment philosopher, Montesquieu, highlights well a viewpoint that we should all at least consider, writing ‘If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman […] because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French’ (1949: 80).
International schooling is still nascent and the intensification of globalisation has raised many questions about how we should consider citizenship. Luckily, we can look back at ethical philosophy to guide us as we move forward. We may choose to focus on small solidarities or put no bounds on our moral sympathy, but as we teach the next generation, I believe Montesquieu’s words are worth considering. ◆
Callum Philbin is a Lecturer in Educational Studies on the ITESS course with NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands. ✉ callum.philbin@gmail.com
References
• Hibler R W (1984) Happiness Through Tranquility: the School of Epicurus. Lanham, Maryland: University
Press of America. • Montesquieu (1949) Mes Pensées. In R Caillois (ed) Oeuvres Complètes. Paris: Gallimard. • Odell J (2019) How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. New York: Melville House. • Rousseau J J (1979) Émile: Or On Education. Translated by A Bloom. New York: Basic Books. • Rousseau J J (1992) Discourse on Political Economy. In C Kelly and R Masters (eds).The Collected Writings of Rousseau. Hanover: University Press of New England. • Taylor A (2019) Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone. London: Verso. • TechCrunch (2017) tcrn.ch/2hcIbxi [accessed 9 February 2022]. • The Telegraph (2016) www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/05/theresa-mays-conference-speech-in-full/ [accessed 9 February 2022].
