A Philosophical Happy Hour discussing education and technology in light of the first entry in Adam Pugen’s “Future is Technoclassical” article.
In a recent article, published here on the Peripatetic Periodical, Faculty Fellow Adam Pugen investigates the resurgence in “classical education” that has been affected through the digital environment. The precise nature of this technologically-mediated return to antiquity and its educational models and figures—denominated “technoclassical” by Emily Singeisen—appears as something not yet precisely known. Thus, it is recognized with a certain trepidation. On the one hand, many funding such initiatives seem opposed to the continued hegemony of liberal democracy. Whether one aligns with that opposition or not, the rapidity of such change may upset much of life. On the other, the education resounds with an inarguably human vitality.
An educational return to Truth
This vitality, I believe, stems from the education’s orientation, in contrast to what has been witnessed in recent centuries, towards truth rather than respecting mere factuality. This orientation may also cause some anxiety. In extreme cases, that is, a disregard for the factual (a word which deserves much clarification!) may result in a blurring of truth: incorporating particular untruths because they serve the “greater truth”. Myth thereby becomes, rather than a source of inspiration, a tool of propaganda; and in the word’s of Flannery O’Connor, “its being propaganda for the side of the angels only makes it worse.”
Nevertheless… it is arguable that truth less concerned with factual precision is far better than facts unresolved into truth. In the chaos of the digital, where we see the presentation of facts to have been rather blurred—endless fake news, deepfakes, misrepresentations, partial relating of complex stories (all long antedating the digital, but run to an extreme within it and thereby exposed)—we feel more poignantly the need for a relation to truth. Classical education has always given this, and far better than the fact-oriented pedagogy of the 20th century.
Technology, if you can keep it
While the opportunities for this return to truth are rich and many, mistakes are also likely—perhaps inevitable. Two principal difficulties confront us: first, a correct understanding of what constitutes the education in question (are shallow attempts at its retrieval are worse than its neglect?); and how technology can enable that retrieval without a perversion of its application. Or, as Dr. Pugen writes:
how can we more precisely define the contours of this technoclassical culture, along with its opportunities and threats? If we must indeed return to an education founded on the classical liberal arts, how might this education be properly related to the contemporary technological environment? In other words, how might the “techno” and the “classical” be most harmoniously aligned?
Moving forward by going back?
In short—everyone should read Dr. Pugen’s article in full—how can we understand this very evident change in our world today?
Join us this Wednesday (2 April 2025) for our Philosophical Happy Hour (5:45–7:15pm ET; latecomers welcome!) as we—from within the ambit of forward-looking technology—discuss with the effects of evolving technological instruments and the paradigms of education with Dr. Pugen.
philosophical happy hour
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Come join us for drinks (adult or otherwise) and a meaningful conversation. Open to the public! Held every Wednesday from 5:45–7:15pm ET.
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