Conference Program

The paper addresses the role of education in an increasingly digital and neoliberal market-oriented society, questioning how to adapt without losing human authenticity. The evolution that has accompanied humanity for millions of years seems to have almost come to a halt with the advent of AI and digital technologies. Humanity feels a sense of misalignment. One question becomes which modalities can be adopted by the human race to make up for this supposed "delay". The problem arises in particular if AI algorithms are designed to identify quantitative efficiency standards. In this case, efficiency parameters, for example in the world of work, would be calculated abstractly by the algorithms, forcing workers to adapt without taking into account the prerogatives of the human race, which are humans’ assessment and physical and psychological limitations (De Caro). One question here arises regarding the pace and nature of evolution and adaptation of the human beings to their changing habitat. According to Stiegler - and drawing from Graham Wallas who faced the issue of the substantial impact of the Great Industrial Revolution on human society in Nineteenth century- it is possible to identify two different forms of adaptation (Stiegler). In the passive sense, adaptation requires modifying the predispositions of our species "from above." The idea is that the human species can adapt, without too much resistance, to the new demands of a changing society and its indisputable predetermined traits and ends. In our contemporary society that means adapting to the values of the market-oriented neoliberal society. Differently, in the active sense, the solution – without neglecting innovations in AI technologies- lies in modifying this environment itself to make it more suited to the prerogatives of our human species.

In light of these considerations, the two most widespread educational models today—Competences-based learning and Bildung education—are compared. I contend that the former, in its most prominent form could translate in a passive adaptation to the standards imposed by a western market- oriented society, that is, the predetermined and never questioned “values” of competition, efficiency, and agonistic attitudes. On the contrary the latter, which is the cultural education rooted in the human being, is presenting itself as a decisive element in preventing the dispersion of humanity (Marabini; Moretti Marabini). Bildung is education as a process through which individuals work out their escape from the dependent relationships in which they initially find themselves and can make their social relationships their own, also allowing to critically question values underlying our society (Jaeggi). It occurs through a guided cultural transmission of content, which fosters the development of a critical and ethical sensitivity of a humanistic nature. Therefore, I contend that an education inspired by Bildung, without denying the possibility of also developing competences and skills in parallel, can constitute a better model for human emancipation and adaptation. It is in this sense that education truly becomes a formative and critical process in the active sense of adaptation.