‘To be less than you are’: self-suspension, potentiality, and study

Abstract:

This article outlines three possible ethical injunctions underlying three different educational projects related to the self: “become what you are” (self-actualization), “be what you are” (self-acceptance), and “be what you become” (self-creation). While differing on many levels, these three injunctions all assume connections between self, education, and some form of determinism and/or developmentalism. Although relatively autonomous, determinism and developmentalism are often linked together in the sense that they both presuppose that function precedes form, determining in advance how something ought to develop, mature, or change. As an alternative, the essay concludes with a parodic fourth injunction which suspends the relationship between self, education, and determinism and/or developmentalism: an injunction to be “less than you are.”

Keywords:

• Giorgio Agamben
• study
• developmentalism
• determinism