Individualism, Instrumental Reason and Policy Texts: Some Considerations from the Perspective of Contemporary Political Philosophy

This article dialogues with Matthew Weinstein's paper named "NGSS, disposability, and the ambivalence of Science in/under neoliberalism," in which he explores the argument that at the same time the NGSS framework is largely identified with neoliberal discourse, it presents points of ambivalence and resistance within. In this dialogue, we focused on two topics that we believe are important for the discussion of the ambivalences highlighted in the author's argument, namely: the "the social production of indifference" as a consequence of the neoliberal ideology and "the production of a version of science streamlined for the neoliberal technoscientific job market" within the "neoliberal ecosystem." Based on the thesis of the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor on ethics and on the concept of hybridism, we linked Weinsteins' analysis to issues related to individualism and instrumental reason, pointing out that it is possible that the ambivalences highlighted by Weinstein are, in fact, a component of neoliberal discourse. Nevertheless we agree that this kind of text presents loopholes that allows practices oriented for social change and for the improvement of democracies in progress. We conclude that for those who dedicate themselves to reflect upon educational strategies to cope with the hegemonic model remains the challenge of finding spaces and times in the curriculum in order to explore the gaps in policy texts and, more important, to promote the experience of democratic practices throughout the school communities.