Educating For Self-Legislation Within An Emotional Landscape

According to Kant, self-direction requires that one’s reasoning power reigns supreme, a view that has, for decades, supported “stand alone” critical thinking classes. In contrast, some argue for the need to reason together across difference hence the growing popularity of Communities of Philosophical Inquiry. It will be argued here that this focus is still too narrow. If “togetherness” is necessary for excellent reasoning, since, clearly, we are emotional beings as well as reasoning beings, such contexts requires that we take responsibility for managing the emotional environment in which that reasoning takes place. Such responsibility is sorely lacking in contemporary culture wars that condone self-righteous insult-flinging, define attempts to self-shield as evidence of deserved guilt, and that perpetrate widespread emotional fragility in the name of safety. Hence, it will be argued that it is imperative that we stop reproducing the error attributed to Descartes of assuming a quasi-disconnect between mind and body by embracing educational strategies that focus entirely on perfecting reason. The goal, rather, must be to educate so that we all take responsibility for creating “we contexts” by ensuring that the emotional landscape to which we inevitably contribute is amenable to the possibility of reasonable interchange and self-direction.