
Inhuman Educations
Jean-Francois Lyotard, Pedagogy, Thought
Derek R. Ford(Author)
Brill (Publisher)
Published on 7. January 2021
Book
Hardback
100 pages
978-90-04-45879-6 (ISBN)
Description
In the first monograph on Lyotard and education, the author approaches Lyotard's thought as pedagogical in itself. The result is a novel, soft, and accessible study of Lyotard organized around two inhuman educations: that of "the system" and that of "the human." The former enforces an interminable process of development, dialogue and exchange, while the latter finds its force in the mute, secret, opaque, and inarticulable.
Threading together a range of Lyotard's work through four pedagogical processes-reading, writing, voicing, and listening-the author insists on the distinct educational logics that can uphold or interrupt different ways of being-together in the world, touching on a range of topics from literacy and aesthetics to time and political-economy. While Inhuman Educations can serve as an introduction to Lyotard's philosophy, it also constitutes a singular, provocative, and fresh take on his thought.
Threading together a range of Lyotard's work through four pedagogical processes-reading, writing, voicing, and listening-the author insists on the distinct educational logics that can uphold or interrupt different ways of being-together in the world, touching on a range of topics from literacy and aesthetics to time and political-economy. While Inhuman Educations can serve as an introduction to Lyotard's philosophy, it also constitutes a singular, provocative, and fresh take on his thought.
Reviews / Votes
Reviews"Ford's manuscript is a novel contribution to the field of educational thought and critical practice in that it moves the import of Lyotard's work past The Postmodern Condition," while it also "offers an indispensable introduction to readers unfamiliar with Lyotard." Moreover, "Inhuman Educations" offers much to readers more familiar with Lyotard's work and especially readers interested in resisting the inhuman system of education."
- Katie Crabtree, Institute of Childhood Education, Leeds Trinity University, University of Leeds in Postdigital Science and Education (2021)
Advance Praise
"Inhuman Educations takes us through the difficulties, challenges, and excitement of thinking Lyotard in relation to pedagogy and the inhuman. As our guide, Derek R. Ford carefully leads the reader through different practices-reading, writing, voicing, and listening-in order to challenge today's dominant pedagogical assumptions. In addition, this well composed volume does an important job in drawing educational philosophy and theory away from its focus on The Postmodern Condition to new questions prompted by infancy and the inhuman."
- Kiff Bamford, Reader in Contemporary Art, Leeds Beckett University
"Deftly but subtly connecting Lyotard's postmodern peregrinations with his investments in revolutionary politics, Derek R. Ford's erudite study brings to the fore pedagogical practices that-in errant and disparate ways-contest the grip that the extant system has on how we think, speak and act."
- Gabriel Rockhill, Professor of Philosophy, Villanova University
"In this mind-expanding book, Derek R. Ford engages with Lyotard to question and challenge the developmental model of modernity, the inhuman system bound up with progress, capitalism, and white supremacy. Education is the key theme here, but the wide-ranging discussions will also resonate for those interested in art, literature, music and politics, and beyond that, for anyone seeking to nurture their secret inner lives instead of continuing to build the system."
- Noni Brynjolson, Assistant Professor of Art History, University of Indianapolis
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
277 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-45879-6 (9789004458796)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
01/2021
Brill
€44.00
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Derek R. Ford, Ph.D., is assistant professor of education studies at DePauw University, whose latest books are Politics and Pedagogy in the "Post-Truth" Era (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019) and Education and the Production of Space (Routledge, 2017).
Content
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Lyotard's Thought as Pedagogy
1 Why Lyotard?
2 The Inhuman System
3 Inhuman Infancy
4 Pedagogical Forces
1 Reading
1 The Text and the Line
2 Developmental Reading and Childish Reading
3 Secret Reading and Public Reading
4 Racist Reading and Quiet Reading
5 Re-Reading: An Invitation
2 Writing
1 Writing and the System
2 The Idiocy of Writing
3 Re-Writing: As If!
4 The List.
Intermezzo: From the Beautiful to the Sublime
1 Sublime Thinking
2 A Sublime Re-Writing
3 Voicing
1 Sonorous Voices
2 Voicing Words
3 Voicing Matter
4 Voicing the Mute
4 Listening
1 Musicking Matter
2 Listening to Listening
3 Elliptical Listening
4 Elliptical Listening and Timbre
5 Sectarian Initiation
Afteword: Towards a Post-Human Approach to (In)humanity: Reflections
on Derek Ford's Inhuman Educations
Joris Vlieghe
1 A Phenomenological, Practice-Oriented and Educational Take on Lyotard
2 Infantia and (In)humanism
3 Humanistic Education as Profoundly (In)human: Perfectibility and Taking Childhood Literally
4 (In)humanist Education as Non-Humanist: Writing as Initiation
5 Making (In)humanism Post-Human: Technologies of Trans-Individual Attention
References
Index
Introduction: Lyotard's Thought as Pedagogy
1 Why Lyotard?
2 The Inhuman System
3 Inhuman Infancy
4 Pedagogical Forces
1 Reading
1 The Text and the Line
2 Developmental Reading and Childish Reading
3 Secret Reading and Public Reading
4 Racist Reading and Quiet Reading
5 Re-Reading: An Invitation
2 Writing
1 Writing and the System
2 The Idiocy of Writing
3 Re-Writing: As If!
4 The List.
Intermezzo: From the Beautiful to the Sublime
1 Sublime Thinking
2 A Sublime Re-Writing
3 Voicing
1 Sonorous Voices
2 Voicing Words
3 Voicing Matter
4 Voicing the Mute
4 Listening
1 Musicking Matter
2 Listening to Listening
3 Elliptical Listening
4 Elliptical Listening and Timbre
5 Sectarian Initiation
Afteword: Towards a Post-Human Approach to (In)humanity: Reflections
on Derek Ford's Inhuman Educations
Joris Vlieghe
1 A Phenomenological, Practice-Oriented and Educational Take on Lyotard
2 Infantia and (In)humanism
3 Humanistic Education as Profoundly (In)human: Perfectibility and Taking Childhood Literally
4 (In)humanist Education as Non-Humanist: Writing as Initiation
5 Making (In)humanism Post-Human: Technologies of Trans-Individual Attention
References
Index