Dear Ranjan
thank you for your reassuring post. while reading it, i experienced the kind of wonder that i long for in a teacher-student relationship.
this wonder emerges when a teacher detects significance in a student's bumble jumble, helps her to articulate and helps her to seek. i wish i could do
that.
please allow me to indulge myself further and to quote from my paper:
"Kindness may seem a very soft purpose for DfN. Nevertheless the fact that kindness seems soft may reflect how ethics of duty dominates our thinking.
The philosopher William Hamrick (2002) points out the neglect of kindness in ethical discourse in general. He attributes its neglect to the dominance of
deontological and utilitarian moral theories, the preoccupation with issues of power and injustice among philosophers and the double meanings of the
word ‘kind’ namely something morally praiseworthy, and natural kinds or natural abilities. I believe that the first cause of neglect directly affects
us. .... Both dominating theories lead to take kindness not seriously. And the current discourse on DfN appears to be driven by an ethics of duty, and
an ethics of kindness may address the imbalance and command our attention".
"In my view, DfN out of kindness differs from DfN out of either externally or self-imposed obligation. The latter is done because of some extrinsic or
intrinsic rules of obligation. The former is done because we empathize with others’ sufferings, and enter a state of which Hamrick calls
‘self-transposal’. ‘Self-transposal’ happens when we take the place of others and feel their anxiety and pains. According to Hamrick ‘kindness emerges
in our relationships with others and their reciprocal relationships with us’ (p.3). A kind act is intentional, voluntary and it is done for people and
for their welfare and it embodies ‘a sensitivity to the need of other and a resolve to attempt to remedy the need’. In short, feelings for others
motivate us to respond to their needs. And motivation underlies one’s ultimate purpose for action".
"However contrary to common belief, a kind act or kind omission to act is not only a result of feelings. Hamrick points out, ‘(k)indness is an
accomplishment rather than a given, because it requires not only the right sort of disposition but also a factual understanding of the external
circumstances that we wish to arrange to our purposes’ (p.88). To act kindly requires not only sensitivity to others’ pain but also an ability to assess
whether an act is truly kind in a certain context. If we are genuinely interested in alleviate others’ sufferings, besides being empathetic, judgements
and competence are necessary to accomplish the goal. Kindness, as Hamrick says, is a form of practical wisdom. Kindness, like obligation presupposes the
recognition of needs and the decision to respond to the needs. It is a legitimate motivation for DfN".
besides, Hamrick makes a distinction between Kindness and Niceness. but i will delay this for other time. i also understand that eastern philosophy and
religions of all sort have had a long tradition on this topic. i wonder if others can kindly bring in different perspectives.
rosan
p.s. MP Ranjan: do you have a document on your four-node model for us to read?
> The three base nodes represent "Knowledge" i.e.. the ability to find and
> know, the second is "Thinking" i.e.. the ability to process concepts and
> images as in imagination and cognitive modelling, and the third is
> "Action" i.e. the ability to act and do or make which includes skills
> and negotiation and transactional abilities with materials and with
> other people and the fourth node is "Values" i.e. to do with feeling and
> sensing and discriminating with empathy, and in my view the word empathy
> has a very significant role in design feeling, taking anothers point of
> view with tolerance etc. The node in the centre is perhaps the most
> important one for education but I do not know how many curricula state
> this as its key objective. In a world heading towards a greater need for
> ecological sustainability and social equity in a globalised arena, these
> qualities may be the only ones that would perhaps inform and help
> discriminate (even intuitively) those extremely complex issues that we
> will be faced with as designers and design teachers. So your search for
> kindness is not misplaced and I do agree that we will need to look
> deeply into these qualities over and above the ones that help us
> maintain a practical domain of action in economic and social and
> functional terms.
--
Rosan Chow
Female Doctoral Student
University of Arts Braunschweig, Germany
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