All posts tagged: indoctrination

The philosophy of indoctrination and how to fix it

The philosophy of indoctrination and how to fix it

Published by Jenni Sidey

In the opening chapter of his book, Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche argues that philosophers have always had a strange, pathological obsession with “truth.” Truth is seen as the greatest good in the universe, and, if we believe Socrates, all the bad and evil in the world stems from ignorance of this truth. And so, libraries of books have been devoted to “What is truth?”, “How to know the truth?”, and “What is and isn’t true.” But what if most people don’t actually want the truth, or if they just want to be right? In such cases, the truth might be a liability. When what philosophers, scientists, or experts present as “true” is something that makes someone wrong, their minds will do something odd — they will lock down. And according to the philosopher Chris Ranalli, when this happens, we should call it “indoctrination.” So, what is indoctrination, and how can we fix it? The cage you build yourself In his work on social epistemology, Ranalli argues that indoctrination isn’t just about what you …

The Limits of “Indoctrination” Talk

The Limits of “Indoctrination” Talk

Published by Jenni Sidey

Many recent debates about education have focused on the idea of indoctrination. The following dialectic is by now familiar: someone points to a concept, book, or topic they find objectionable and calls it “indoctrination.” Those who approve of that part of the curriculum defend it by arguing that it is, in fact, not indoctrinating students. In most cases, the debate reaches a stalemate, with both sides convinced that the other party is ideologically motivated and untrustworthy. At this point, those with the power to decide what “indoctrination” amounts to—be it school, district, state officials, or, in a few cases, even the Supreme Court—issue a verdict and enforce compliance. A natural response to this dynamic would be to say that the parties involved are not accurately tracking indoctrination. They are merely pointing to educational content that they personally find disagreeable, distasteful, or ideologically unappealing. Indoctrination is a real phenomenon, but our political conflicts have hindered our ability to identify and criticize it. Here is one potential solution: come up with principled (objective, neutral, unbiased, etc.) criteria …

Supreme Court rules exclusively Christian RE in NI is ‘indoctrination’ – Humanists UK

Supreme Court rules exclusively Christian RE in NI is ‘indoctrination’ – Humanists UK

Published by Sam Flores

The Supreme Court has unanimously ruled in favour of a non-religious father and his child that the exclusively Christian teaching of Religious Education (RE) and collective worship in Northern Ireland are ‘indoctrination’. This is therefore discriminatory under human rights law. This ruling will have wide-ranging implications for the teaching of RE in Northern Ireland and for collective worship across the United Kingdom. The case is known as JR87, and the original judgment in the High Court of Northern Ireland in 2022 was that ‘religious education and collective worship are not conveyed in an objective, critical, or pluralistic manner in Northern Ireland [schools].’ However, the Northern Ireland Department of Education appealed at the Court of Appeal last October. It ruled that while the RE curriculum was not objective, critical, or pluralistic, this was not sufficient to conclude there had been a breach of human rights law as this didn’t amount to indoctrination. The Court also ruled that the right to withdraw was not stigmatising. Northern Ireland Humanists intervened in the case. The father and child appealed …