Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ There is no such thing as western civilisation

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is a terrific article and one that should force us to re-examine the 'traditions' we seek to pass on through the process of education. "How have we managed to tell ourselves that we are rightful inheritors of Plato, Aquinas, and Kant, when the stuff of our existence is more Beyoncé and Burger King?" asks Kwame Anthony Appiah. Against perhaps the prevailing wind of our times, he argues, "We live with seven billion fellow humans on a small, warming planet. The cosmopolitan impulse that draws on our common humanity is no longer a luxury; it has become a necessity." Quoting Terence, he says "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto." "I am human, I think nothing human alien to me."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Dec 26, 2024 07:22 a.m.

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