Do we learn to be blind? Epistemic blindness and the role of education by Kontrapunkte (ZGF)

Christos Simis // Our world today is ripe with moral issues, from climate change, poverty, inequality and exploitation all the way to everyone’s favorite topic of the past year: the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be argued that in order to be addressed adequately these issues require some sort of social transformation. If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you are already familiar with the concept. But how can this transformation be achieved? I would like to focus on one topic that is, in my opinion, not discussed enough neither in academic nor public discourses, namely what I call epistemic blindness and the role education plays in regard to it. My hypothesis is that current educational systems, especially in the West, convey a narrative of knowledge which is presented as universal and ubiquitous, but is a narrative that carries a heavy historical weight of domination and oppression from the age of European Colonialism. In what follows, I will try to provide an argument about why I think this is morally problematic. But first things first, let’s talk about knowledge in general and the conditions that give rise to this problem in the first place.

https://kontrapunkte.hypotheses.org/1508

Picture by Christos Simis.

Musik: Blue Dot Sessions – I Dare (CC-BY-NC)
freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot…oPink/I_Recall