“So many worn hands, so many chains. So many broken teeth, so much hate. Raymond Queneau, sung by Guy Béart, seems to have identified the sad face of our time. So much so that the Head of State felt he had to forcefully ask for the erection of “bulwarks” in the face of hatred. Couldn’t education form the first of these bastions? But can we really, and how, educate our children against hate?
In his EthicsSpinoza defines hate as a sadness accompanied by the idea of an external cause : “To hate someone is to imagine that he is the cause of sadness.” Sadness is, along with joy and longing, one of the three “primitive” human feelings. A feeling is a state that affects the body by modifying (increasing or decreasing) its power to act. In general, the joy it increases this power of action and marks the transition to greater perfection; and sadness diminishes it, which leads to less perfection.
Read more: Why do philosophy with children?
Hatred is therefore a sad passion. As such, it is “necessarily bad”. It pushes to “remove” or “destroy” what is its object. We must therefore make an effort to fight it. But the drama is that “men are by nature prone to hatred.” How, then, can one fight against such a “natural” tendency? Should education, in particular, be denaturing on this point?
Spinoza’s entire effort is to show how one can access a “good way of life” while remaining within the framework of the possibilities offered by human nature. Better, by fully realizing this nature (which, for him, is a part of the divine nature). Because man has, by nature, the ability to overcome hatred. For this, three main ways are offered to him.
Make reason prevail over passion
“Man is always necessarily subject to the passions”. But action and passion have the same origin: “it is one and the same tendency which makes us say that man is active or passive”. This tendency becomes passion when it is linked to inadequate ideas; and virtue when connected with adequate ideas.
Passion is only deprivation of knowledge. It manifests the impotence of the spirit. On the contrary, the power of the mind manifests itself in clear and distinct knowledge, in the very act of understanding.
Shutterstock
Because passion doesn’t have the power to erase reason. On the contrary, “all the acts we do determined by a feeling-passion, we can make them determined without it, by reason”. Through knowledge you gain power over feelings. In particular, “a feeling-passion ceases to be a passion as soon as we have a clear and distinct idea of it”. It is reason – liberating, source of joy – that saves us from passion – the cause of servitudesynonymous with sadness. Man can therefore be, in fact, subject to the passions; but also freed from this submission.
Since “to act in virtue is to act under the guidance of reason”, the first remedy for feelings such as hatred lies in their “true knowledge”. Making reason prevail is therefore directing all education to bring into play the very act of understanding. Understanding is “the good that he who acts by virtue desires for himself” and that “he will also desire for all other men”.
[Près de 80 000 lecteurs font confiance à la newsletter de The Conversation pour mieux comprendre les grands enjeux du monde. Abonnez-vous aujourd’hui]
Educationally, anything that leads to understanding is good; bad, anything that has the effect of preventing understanding. “Bringing intelligence to perfection is nothing other than understanding.” For this, the child must be taught to be determined to act “from what he understands”. The first way to erect an educational bulwark against hatred is therefore to make children understand that we must always and above all try to understand. And to support them in this effort.
Experience the power of love
“It is rare, however, for men to live under the guidance of reason.” And, on the other hand, some might think that a life without passion would be pretty nice. Fort heureusement, une deuxième piste s’offre aux éducateurs, qui permet d’agir en restant sur le plan même des sentiments : combattre, et vaincre, un sentiment-passion négatif (la haine), par un sentiment actif, et positif (l ‘love). Because “a feeling can only be repressed or suppressed by an opposite feeling stronger than it.” In this case, “hatred must be overcome by love (or generosity) and not compensated by mutual hatred.”
But by what miracle can love, which is “joy associated with the idea of an external cause”, be stronger than hate? Simply because the strength to act is increased by joy, while it is diminished by sadness. For this reason “those who live under the guidance of reason strive, as far as they can, to give love (or generosity) in exchange for hatred, anger, contempt, etc. he receives from others. Especially since “if one cares to overcome hatred with love, one fights with joy and security”.
Shutterstock
But this is experienced, more than demonstrated. The best way for parents and educators to combat hate is therefore, as far as this second track is concerned, to love both their children and their pupils. That is to say, to find joy in thinking about them and being with them. This implies, it should be noted, that we too love ourselves, that is, that we experience joy for the simple fact of being ourselves. But that leads to the third track.
Strengthen the power to act
The secret to the miracle of love is simple: it helps strengthen the power to act in every child. The power to act merges with the power to understand. But hate is a sign and an admission of helplessness. Bondage can be precisely defined as “man’s inability to govern and repress his feelings.”
Everything rests on the “tendency”, which “is nothing other than the essence (or nature) of man”. He is therefore nothing other than the power or effort (conatus) by which everything perseveres in his being. The trend is self-perpetuating. “The more one strives to seek what is useful (to preserve one’s being) the more one can; on the contrary, to the extent that one neglects to keep what is useful (one’s being), one is impotent.”
Read more: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Positive Education with Hegel’s Philosophy
For this it is necessary to help the child to safeguard his power. Like ? Power develops in and through action. The philosopher Alain will explain it clearly: “the best thing is to give the child a lofty idea of his power, and support him with victories”. The “difficulty won” is “the bait fit for man” (talk about education). The power to act is always joyful. “When the mind considers itself and its power to act, it is in joy.” The joy of being able to pass, being active, to greater perfection.
To overcome hatred it is therefore necessary, according to this third way, to experience self-satisfaction. In fact, “the joy that comes from self-esteem is called self-love or self-satisfaction”; hence the need, noted above, to love each other!
Finally, it should be noted that the power to act concerns both the body and the mind. For Spinoza “thinking substance and extended substance are one and the same substance”. So that:
“The effort (or power) which animates the mind when it thinks is, by nature, equal and contemporary to the effort (or power) which animates the body when it acts”. So everything that increases is useful, everything that decreases harmful, the “capacity of the body”:
“The more a body is able, compared to others, to do or suffer more things at the same time, the more its mind is able, compared to others, to perceive more things at the same time”. Can we praise physical education and sports more highly, which will add their benefits to the realization of love and the development of reason?
Understand, love, act, these could therefore be, if we follow Spinoza, the three keywords of an educational project whose ambition would be to arm ourselves against hatred. And live happily.
