Pour une philosophie du discernement

Abstract

This article will analyze imposture as a kind of values’ confusion. It will take as an example the neoliberal claim to make the entrepreneur the teacher of the 21th century. Such a rhetoric makes a common sense based on two schemes well identified by Foucault, the schema of “compensation of values” from German ordoliberalism and that of “convertibility of values” from human capital theory. What are the intellectual tools that would enable us to dispel the neo-liberal rhetoric’s confusions ? Neither the Platonic way to decide rivals’ claims (from entrepreneur and teacher) according to an Idea of the school nor the Pascalian theory of worths seem practicable in a problematic world. We will take the modest path of pragmatism that develops an anti-reductionist strategy by defending pluralism and irreducibility of values. The theory of “language games” from Wittgenstein can then offer the appropriate tool for a philosophy, even a pedagogy of discernment.

Keywords

• imposture
• discernment
• pluralism
• language games
• Dewey