Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-27T21:10:06.299Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Global Ethics and Education in Tolerance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Hans Küng
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A theologian would be ill-advised if he tried to teach pedagogy to the pedagogues. And indeed it is not my aim to proclaim some way of teaching - even less so after a period of pedagogical experimentation that produced one new model after the other. Rather I would like to buttress the efforts of pedagogues and educators from the viewpoint of ethics at a time when many people talk about an educational crisis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 44 , Issue 176 , December 1996 , pp. 137 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. N. Postman, The End of Education, New York, 1995.

2. Ibid., p. 86.

3. See Der Spiegel, 33/1995.

4. On the behavior of pupils in Baden-Württemberg and Saxony, see R.H. Weiß, Gewaltmedienkonsum. Video-Gewalt 1992 and Skchsische Jugendstudie 1992. Both field studies may be obtained from the Oberschulamt in Stuttgart. See also M. Scheunengrab, Filmkonsum und Delinquenz, Regensburg, 1994.

5. For example, the "Initiative Gewaltverzicht im Fernsehen" that was started by the Detmold psychologist K.A. Richter who collected 250,000 signatures. See Focus, 26/1994.

6. See Schwäbisches Tagblatt, 12 October 1995.

7. Statements by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, cited in: International Herald Tribune, 9/10 September 1995.

8. See H. von Hentig in: Die Zeit, September 1995.

9. Intimidating or injuring another person should therefore not a priori be included in a definition of aggressiveness. As E. von Gebsattel (in: Lexikon der Pädagogik, Vol. I, Freiburg, 1952, p. 40) correctly observes: "By studying ani mals that hunt, or are in heat, or are being pursued and defend themselves or their brood, it becomes clear that there is no primordial desire among animals that aims primarily at damaging or destroying an other animal's habitat. All aggressive actions by animals - even where their destructive effect is evident - represent no more than drives of self-preservation or procreation."

10. I am following here the illuminating analysis of Gabriele Haug-Schnabel in her unpublished study Das neue Verhältnis biologischer Grundlagen von aggres siven Verhaltensweisen (1994).

11. See L. Berkowitz (ed.), Roots of Aggression. A Re-examination of the Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis, New York, 1969.

12. See the Federal President's speech on this occasion.

13. See H. Küng and K.-J. Kuschel (eds.), Erklärung zum Weltethos. Die Deklaration des Parlamentes der Weltreligionen, Munich, 1993.

14. Federal President Herzog's speech (note 12 above).

15. Erklärung (note 13 above), p. 9.

16. Ibid., p. 10.

17. Ibid., p. 12.

18. Ibid., p. 13.

19. Quoted in: J. Lähnemann (ed.), "Das Projekt Weltethos" in der Erziehung. Refer- ate und Ergebnisse des Niirnberger Forums 1994, Hamburg, 1995, p. 392. This volume contains rich material on the various aspects of the question of World Ethos and Education.

20. See P. Wagner, Die Erklärung zum Weltethos. Vorschlag fiir die Behandlung im Religionsunterricht in Klasse 10 (Gymnasium) and W. Lange, Plädoyer für einen ethischen Minimalkonsens an Gesamtschulen. Both are repr. in: Rundbrief des Ver bandes der katholischen Religionslehrerinnen und Religionslehrer an Gesamtschulen in Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V., 10 (October 1995).

21. A modified and amplified version of this article will appear in my book Wel tethos für Weltpolitik und Weltwirtschaft, Munich, 1997, a continuation of my Global Responsibility. In Search of a New World Ethic (1991).