The Dispute over Relativism and Problem-Oriented Teaching of Philosophy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26806/fd.v17i1.560Abstract
The text focuses on the issue of why and how we should work pedagogically with the dispute over relativism. It seeks, first, to understand in what contexts and for what reasons students tend to hold relativistic views; and, second, to describe what strategies teachers should use when thematizing the dispute over relativism. Based on extensive field research, the first part of the text discusses the manifestations of so-called student relativism among students at a public high school; it demonstrates that awareness of the diversity of possible answers to the issues at stake does not in itself lead to the frequent expression of relativistic views; and it discusses other possible causes. The second part of the text defends the claim that problem-oriented teaching provides an appropriate framework for dealing with the dispute over relativism and other controversial issues. The basic premise of the advocated approach is that teaching philosophy should deepen and broaden the students’ freedom, by means of distinguishing between multiple possible views on the problem under discussion and by considering related arguments. As far as the dispute over relativism itself is concerned, the key, according to the argument put forward, is to thematize the intermediate paths between extreme relativism and the assumption of already known absolute truth.
Key words: teaching philosophy, problem-oriented teaching, relativism, ethics
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