Premium
Guilt, Suffering and Responsibility
Author(s) -
Todd Sharon
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.00247
Subject(s) - psychoanalytic theory , economic justice , context (archaeology) , collective responsibility , sociology , moral responsibility , social responsibility , psychology , philosophy of education , ethical responsibility , social justice , epistemology , moral education , social psychology , pedagogy , psychoanalysis , criminology , environmental ethics , law , higher education , philosophy , political science , paleontology , biology
This paper examines the moral significance of guilt in the context of how students confront the suffering of another. Within social‐justice education, such confrontations are often staged in pedagogical efforts to encourage students to assume social responsibility. Frequently, however, the guilt that students claim to endure as a result of these pedagogical encounters is not perceived to be of much ethical import. By exploring the psychoanalytic work of Melanie Klein and the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, this essay argues that guilt arises out of our susceptibility to another’s pain and that it plays a crucial role both in ‘making reparation’ (Klein) and in the very formation of responsibility itself (Levinas).