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Living on Borrowed Time: Rethinking Temporality, Self, Nihilism, and Schooling

Authors :
Rappleye, Jeremy
Komatsu, Hikaru
Source :
Comparative Education. 2016 52(2):177-201.
Publication Year :
2016

Abstract

Seeking to contribute to recent attempts to rethink the deepest foundations of the field, this paper offers news ways of contemplating time, specifically its relations to self, nihilism, and schooling. We briefly review how some leading Western thinkers have contemplated time before detailing Japanese scholars who have offered divergent, original, and arguably more sophisticated, theoretical accounts. We then illustrate these ideas by sketching how Japan "borrowed time" following the abrupt political rupture of 1868, showing how "Linear Time" came to be disseminated and diffused, largely through modern schooling. Last, we spotlight the nihilism that has arisen as consequence. Our primary aim is not empirical elaboration, however, but instead disclosure of a complex of relations that the field of comparative education has yet to discuss. We offer both the experience-cum-thought of Japan and this complex itself as reconstructive resources for the field which remains shallow in its parochial presumptions and unwillingness to engage ontologically.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
0305-0068
Volume :
52
Issue :
2
Database :
ERIC
Journal :
Comparative Education
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
EJ1100756
Document Type :
Journal Articles<br />Reports - Evaluative
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2016.1142736