Reflections on Education and Culture in al-Jabri’s Thought

Abstract

Corrao puts the philosopher’s care for education as the means for both cultural and political renewal in the context of classical and modern Arab-Islamic views on the school. Corrao starts by polarizing the development of educational schools and critical thought in the Arab-Islamic tradition in the sense that there were political factors that led to such a development in the past. She brings in the Mu‘tazila movement, the context of its development and demise. This is linked with al-Jabri’s view that the intellectual and philosophical debates in the tradition are not ideological free. She ends her reflections by underlining al-Jabri’s emphasis on the humanities as important disciplines for cultural opening and the development of critique among students in Arab schools, against rigidity that scientific teaching alone brings about.