What would it be like to be polite?

Peter Bieri (2005)

Education is something that every human being does with and for themselves: one educates oneself.
Others can instruct us, but educating oneself is something that can only be done by each individual.
one to himself.1It's not just a simple play on words, because educating oneself is
really something very different from being instructed. We acquire an instruction in order to
to be able to do something. On the contrary, when we educate ourselves, we focus on becoming
somehow, we aspire to be in the world in a certain way. How could we
So describe education?

Education as guidance in the world

Education begins with curiosity. If curiosity is killed, it is robbed from the

personal the opportunity to educate oneself. Curiosity is the insatiable desire to
to experience how much exists in the world. She can unfold in directions
completely different: upwards, to the stars; downwards, to the atoms and the
how many; outward, to the diversity of natural species; inward, to the
fantastic complexity of the human organism; back to the history of the universe, from
the Earth and human society; and forward, to the question of what the destiny will be.
of our planet, of our way of life, and our self-images. It is about
always two things: knowing what is happening and understanding why it is so
what happens.

The amount of things there are to know and understand is gigantic and keeps growing every
another day. Educating oneself does not mean running after everything until losing breath. The solution
It consists of making a general map of what is knowable and comprehensible and learning.
how one could learn more about the different provinces. Education is therefore a
double learning: one knows the world and learns to learn.

From this arise two equally important things. The first is a sense of the
Proportions: being educated does not require knowing the exact number of languages.
what is on the ground, but it should be noted that there are more like 4000 than 40; that
China is the most populous country but, by far, not the largest; that do not exist
hundreds of chemical elements; that the speed of light is neither 10 nor a million
in kilometers per second; that the universe is not millions of years old, but rather
billions of years; that the Middle Ages did not begin with the birth of Jesus, nor the

1
I translate here the German terms Bildung and Ausbildung as 'education' and 'instruction', respectively.
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Modernity a hundred years ago. It also accounts for the ability to appreciate the importance
of people and their achievements: Louis Pasteur was more important for humanity than
Pelé; the invention of the printing press and of the light bulb was more consequential than that of
the razor and the lipstick.

The second thing that appears in the framework of guidance in the world is a sense of
precision, an understanding of what it means to know and understand something accurately,
be it a rock, a poem, an illness, a symphony, a legal system, a
political movement, a game. No one manages to know exactly more than a tiny
world sector and that is not what the idea of education demands. But the subject
A well-educated person is one who can form an idea of what precision is and that it has a
very different meaning in the various provinces of knowledge.

Education as illustration

Educated is then a person who knows how to navigate in the world. What is the value
This orientation? 'Knowledge is power.' Regarding the idea of education, this
it cannot mean dominating others with one's own knowledge, for the power of knowledge lies
in another thing: he prevents one from becoming a victim. Whoever knows about the world can
to be deceived with less ease and to defend oneself when others try to turn it into
toy of their interests, for example in politics or advertising. The orientation in
the world is not the only orientation that can be achieved; being educated means
also familiarize oneself with the issue of what constitutes knowledge and the
understanding and what its limits are, being able to ask the question: What do I know and what
Do I really understand? That is, to be able to make a balance of knowledge and understanding. Of
These questions include: What evidence supports my beliefs?
Are they trustworthy? Do they really justify what they seem to justify? What
distinguishes good arguments from deceptive rhetoric? The knowledge referred to here is
treatise is a second-order knowledge, one that distinguishes the naive scientist from
educated and the serious journalist of the simpleton, the one who has never heard of criticism
from the sources. Second-order knowledge saves us from becoming victims of
superstitions. When does one event make another likely? What is a law, by contrast?
a fortuitous correlation? What distinguishes an authentic explanation from an apparent one?
We must know things like these if we appreciate a danger and want to prepare ourselves.
a judgment on the predictions we are bombarded with. Someone attentive in these
issues will maintain a skeptical distance, not only towards esoteric literature, but
also in light of the economic forecasts, the arguments of the campaigns
electoral, the psychotherapeutic promises and the daring pretensions of the
research on the brain, and will feel irritated when hearing others repeat like
scientific formulas. Educated is, in this sense, one who knows how to distinguish between
my rhetorical facades and true thoughts; and it can do so, because two
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Questioning has become second nature to him: What does it mean
Exactly that? And where do we know that this is the case? Formulate it over and over again.
those questions make us resistant to rhetorical exercises, brainwashing and the
affiliation to cults and sharpens perception against the blind customs of
thought and speech, to fashion trends and to every form of adherence
irreflexive. Under those conditions, one stops being exposed to deception and being taken
unexpectedly; talkative people, gurus, and arrogant journalists no longer have a chance.
This is a supreme good and its name is incorruptibility of thought.

Education as historical consciousness

The enlightened consciousness of the educated person is not just a consciousness

criticism, but it is also marked by a historical curiosity: How has it arrived
What causes us to think, feel, and live as we do? And based on that
curiosity rests on the idea that everything could have been different, that it does not exist
In our culture, no metaphysical inevitability. The enlightened consciousness is, by
so much, a consciousness of historical contingency, that is expressed in the ability to
to contemplate one's own culture from a certain distance and to take a stance toward it
ironic and playful position. This does not mean that one cannot declare oneself a supporter.
of their own way of life, but rather it distances itself from the naive and arrogant idea of
that the very way of life, more than any other, conforms to a supposed essence
human. Such presumption, constitutive of all imperialism and of all missionary attitudes,
it is a telltale sign of lack of education.

Historical consciousness leads to the need for a new appropriation of culture.

in which it has casually grown. This has a close relationship with the reflection on
the language: to illuminate our history as participants in a particular culture
means, above all, to make us aware of the history of our words, because we are
talking animals and nothing contributes more to our cultural identity than words
with which we shape our relationship with nature, with other beings
humans and with ourselves. Human ways of life are coined through
Languages in which worldviews are manifested. How we see the world is something that
It is shown in the categories around which a language condenses. How have
emerged and have transformed these categories? They quickly draw attention
categories such as 'spirit', 'soul', 'consciousness' and 'reason', those words, therefore,
that serve to characterize the particularity of the human being, its special dignity. The
The historical change here is dramatic and has left in its wake a national insecurity.
whose knowledge is part of education. The same goes for ideas of good and
evil, guilt and atonement, respect and dignity, freedom and justice. The
the stories of these words show everything that is different, diffuse, and fragmentary that is
hidden beneath the shining surfaces. Words like 'cruelty' and 'suffering',
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"happiness" and "serenity" are examples of how, in a few words, one
they condense cultural self-images. In the language of feelings, it finds its
expression the way in which the participants of a culture perceive themselves. The
Life forms and their valuations are often expressed in coinage metaphors.
One truly enters a culture when one masters the language of tenderness, the
swear words and obscenities, when the existing linguistic taboos are known.

Understanding a culture means understanding its representations of integrity.

moral. We are born with certain commandments and moral prohibitions, the
we breathe in the air of the family home, of the street, of the movies and books that we
they amaze us and mark us; they constitute our moral identity and determine in
we moral feelings such as indignation, resentment, and malice
consciousness. At the beginning—and this belongs to the rigor of morality—we put these things
as absolutes, we don't learn them as a possibility among others. The process of
education then consists of becoming aware that in other parts of the Earth,
in other societies and ways of life, the concepts of good and evil are considered differently and
they are perceived with a different sensitivity; that our moral identity is also
contingent, a historical chance; that the representations of sin and humility, by
Example, they are different outside of monotheistic religions; not everywhere the
revenge and retaliation are considered reprehensible; what can be thought of another
way about suffering, death, and happiness; and that in other parts they
they fix the physical and moral ills in the world without resorting to the idea that they
they are not the final word and that, one day, they will be called to account.

Education can create shock in the believer. Finding out that millions of
people do not have the right faith must be something shocking. And since it belongs to the
the substance of religious beliefs whose foundation cannot be historical chance,
It is equally difficult to recognize the obvious: that what is created, the liturgy
that it continues and even the aspect that morality itself has, are the result of a gamble
geographical and social. This would threaten to strip faith of its value, religion
would suddenly appear as the toy of cultural coincidence. That's why education
it is subversive with respect to the worldview, because it makes conscious of the
relativity of all forms of life. Totalitarian ideologies and also the church try
systematically to stifle this aspect of education; hence the prohibition of the
books and travels. In Islam, apostasy is punished with the death penalty. The
education dissolves totalitarian metaphysics and understands religion as an expression of
a form and a support that human beings want to give to their lives. In this sense,
religion has nothing to do with metaphysical truth, but with the formation of a
identity, with the question of how we want to live. The knowledge of alternatives it
strips it of its value only seemingly; this value can even be experienced more
intensity, because we no longer have to deal with an intangible destination, but with
a free choice. It could be said that only those who know and recognize contingency
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historical of its cultural and moral identity has truly become an adult. Meanwhile
let an outside instance prescribe how one should think about love and
death, on morality and happiness, has not been fully assumed.
responsibility for one's own existence.

The awareness of historical contingency also includes other things: on one hand, the
to know about different forms of state and legal systems, but also issues
like the representations of intimacy; what awakens modesty; the relationship with the
body; the forms of courtesy and dignity; how it is celebrated and dressed; the relationship
with drugs; the forms of jubilation and tenderness; when one cries and when one laughs;
the manifestations of humor; the expressions of sadness; the funeral rituals; what
it is offensive; how to eat; what is despised; the ways of approaching between
man and woman; the ways of flirting. Also here being polite means a
knowledge of diversity, respect for the strange, the retraction of a
premature arrogance.

If I am educated in this sense, I possess a certain form of curiosity: the desire to want
to know what it would have been like to grow up in another language, in another environment and time, in another
climate. What would it be like to feel comfortable in another profession, in another social stratum. I have the
the need for an attentive journey to expand my internal boundaries. Education gives us
it makes addicts of documentary films.

So far, I have defined education as guidance in the world, illustration and

historical consciousness. Now I add the definition that is dearest to me: the person
An educated person is one who has a broad and deep understanding of the many
possibilities of living a human life.

Education as the ability to express oneself

The educated subject is a reader. However, it is not enough to be a book devourer and
a knower of many things, for, as paradoxical as it may sound, the scholar exists.
uncultivated. The difference lies in that an educated person knows how to read books that the
They transform. "Doesn't humanism protect us from anything then?" Alfred was asking.
Andersch referring to Heinrich Himmler, who came from a family of the
cultivated bourgeoisie in humanism. The answer is that he protects only those who
not only consumes humanistic writings, but is also captivated by them, the one who after
reading becomes another. It is a clear sign of education not to consider the
knowing as mere collection of information, a fun hobby or social decoration,
but like something that can signify an internal transformation and expansion that
they in turn have an effect on the action. This applies not only to the case of matters

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morally relevant, for the educated person also transforms with poetry;
this distinguishes it from the cultured bourgeois and petty bourgeois.

When it comes to finding the right judgment in a given matter, the reader of
specialized books have a chorus of voices in his head, he is no longer alone. Something has
it happens when he reads Voltaire, Freud, Bultmann, or Darwin: he sees the world in a way
different, one can speak about it in a different, more precise way, acknowledging more
interrelationships. The literature reader learns yet another thing, namely, how to
you can talk about human thinking, wanting, and feeling. Learn the language of
soul, learn that, in front of the same object, one can have a different feeling than
accustomed, another love, another hate. Learn new words and new metaphors to
the events of the soul and, since its vocabulary, its conceptual repertoire, has been
expanded, can talk about their experiences with more nuances, which, in turn, allows them
enables to feel in a more differentiated way.

We now have a broader definition of education: an educated person is someone who

can talk better and more interestingly about the world and about themselves than
those who always repeat snippets of words and fragments of thought with the
they met some time ago. Their ability to express themselves better allows them to delve deeper
and to develop their self-understanding more and more, knowing that there is no point in it
final, because one never reaches the ultimate essence of oneself.

Education as self-knowledge

It is typical for people to question what pertains to their opinions, desires and
emotions and taking care of themselves. Education is something that intertwines with this
ability. Someone can be sufficiently educated and have great guidance
that allows him to navigate successfully through the world, but if he cannot confront himself and
working on oneself does not have education in the full sense of the term.

It can be a form of education as self-knowledge: instead of simply believing,

to desire and feel certain things, I can ask myself, where do they come from,
what origin do they have and on what bases do they rest. In the case of thought and the
An opinion then arises from a second-order knowledge that we have already mentioned.
However, I would like to refer more precisely to what concerns me
will and my emotions: How have I come to them? What has driven them and how much
Are they well-founded? It's about understanding oneself in one's thinking, feeling, and wanting.
instead of simply letting these things happen, from the interpretation of the self
past and the elucidation of projects for the future, in summary; it is about the
construction and the readjustment of self-images. The educated person sees themselves
reflected in its ability to formulate questions of this kind: How do I know that a

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Is self-image not a phantasmagoria? Do we have privileged access to ourselves?
Are they the same? Are the self-images the result of a discovery or an invention?

According to my following definition, an educated person is someone who knows about themselves and
of the difficulties that this knowledge entails. It is someone whose self-image can
to be kept in suspense with skeptical attention, someone aware of the fragile
diversity that inhabits it and does not accept any social identity as something
undeniable.

Education as self-determination

In the education process, it is not only about widening self-knowledge.

same, but also to be able to assess oneself in one's own
to think, to feel, and to want, to identify with a part and distance oneself from the rest. In this
it consists of the construction of a spiritual identity; this is how a sculpture is carved
spiritual for ourselves.

For various reasons, I may be dissatisfied with the world of my volitions, my

thoughts and my feelings: because it lacks clarity and harmony in its
interior; because I constantly clash with the exterior; because I feel strange in it.
It is then that I require a sentimental education, in the broad sense of the
term, that is to say, the type of education that was commonly referred to for good reasons
education of the heart: supported by the increasing clarity regarding logic and dynamics
from my own emotional life I learn that thoughts, desires, and feelings
they are not an inevitable destination, but something that can be developed and transformed; from this
way I experience what it means to become self-determined not only in what
I do, but also in what I want and experience. This self-determination cannot
consist in shutting myself up in an inner fortress to escape any strange influence that
it may contain the poison of someone else's determination. What I learn is something different:
to differentiate between an influence that alienates me and another that makes me freer in the
the extent to which it brings me closer to myself. Any form of psychotherapy that does not exhaust itself
in a simple conditioning and deconditioning contributes to this way of
inner training.

Self-determination does not occur, in this sense, from a high internal viewpoint,
since I can guide my emotional journey, because the self is nothing different from that
The same emotional flow. That I determine myself only means that it takes place a
permanently tie, release and re-tie the network of episodes, states, and dispositions
emotional aspects that make me up, to project, discard and rebuild my self-image, in
Those who calibrate what happens to me internally. The educated person is someone who
determines its emotional state in terms of allowing a permanent process of

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self-evaluation and is able to withstand the insecurity that this entails. Thus,
convert into a subject in the strict sense.

Education as moral sensitivity

Sentimental education, education of the heart, can still have another meaning,
namely, the development of moral sensitivity. From the deep look into the contingency of
cultural identity itself fosters tolerance, not as a formality of enduring what
strange, but rather as authentic and natural respect for other forms of life. It is not about,
of course, that it is always easy and less so when the strange challenges the
own moral expectations. What to do with the cruelty that awakens our anger?
but in other places it is seen as a normal part of life? Education is the art
difficult to learn, to maintain the balance between recognizing the strange and the
maintenance of one's own moral vision. It is about enduring this tension: education
demands bravery.
We have already seen it: the better someone masters the language of experiencing, the more they perceive of
more differentiated way and, consequently, their relationship with others is enriched.
This is especially true for that ability called empathy, which is an indicator of the
education: the more educated a person is, the more capable they will be of putting themselves in
the place of others. Education enables a precise social fantasy: it makes visible
the veiled forms of oppression and sheds light on the cruelties that were committed unnoticed.
In this way, she truly becomes a bastion against cruelty.
To do what Himmler did, one must suffer from an unimaginable lack of imagination.

Education as poetic experience

The instruction is always oriented towards a utility: one acquires know-how to achieve
something. On the contrary, the education that we are dealing with here has value in itself.
same, like love. It would be incorrect to say that she is a means to be happy, for the
Happiness is not something that can be planned for or aimed at. And it is not about
nor, of course, that there is no happiness without education; but there are indeed
experiences of happiness that are closely linked to the facets of education
commented: the joy of understanding the world a little better; the liberating experience
of being able to shake off a superstition; the fortune of reading a book that opens a
historical corridor; the fascination of a movie that shows how different life is
in another place; the fortunate experience of learning a new language for one's own
experience; the joyful surprise of suddenly understanding each other better; the liberation of achieving
abandon the old paths of living and thus experience more

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self-determination; the surprising experience that with growth of the
moral sensitivity expands the inner radius.

And education opens another dimension of happiness: the intensified experience of the
present while reading poetry, contemplating paintings, listening to music. The illuminating force of
words, images, and melodies only fully open to one who is
aware of his own place in the complex fabric of human activities to which
we call culture. No one who knows the density of those moments will confuse
training with education will not make the foolish mistake of claiming that what it seeks is
education is 'getting us in shape for the future'

Passionate education

The educated person is recognized by their vehement reactions to everything that

obstruct education. The reactions are vehement, because everything is at stake: the
guidance, illustration and self-knowledge, fantasy, self-determination and
moral sensitivity, art, and happiness. In the face of the obstacles raised in a way
there can be neither indulgence nor
dispassion. The yellow press, which in its greed for profit destroys everything
that which I have spoken of can only awaken the most impetuous repulsion. The
An educated person is someone who feels repulsion towards certain things: towards the
mendacity of advertising and electoral campaigns; in the face of phrases, clichés and
other forms of hypocrisy; in the face of euphemisms and the cynical information politics
military; against all forms of boasting and unreflective adherence, as they are found
also in the bourgeois newspapers that take themselves for the place of the
education. The educated person perceives every detail as an example of a great evil and their
vehemence grows with every attempt at minimization, because, as has already been said, it is everything
what is at stake.

(Translation from German: Fernando García Leguizamón. Bogotá, January 2010)