on a discomfort over the children’s institution or uneasiness over the children’s institution. jean-françois lyotard’s critique of the humanist doctrine of education

Abstract

In his last texts, Lyotard refers to the figure of childhood through a criticism of the humanist doctrine of education, which results in an opposition between child and man. Lyotard affirms that all institutions and cultures, if they are necessary, must abstain from repressing childhood and maintaining loyalty to it’s inarticulate and almost inaudible voice. After reviewing, through the analysis of Kant’s pedagogical theories, the relevance of this criticism, we point out its consequences on the life of institutions, the value of tradition and of great works, memory and symbolization. The disquiet of Lyotard invites us to consider that loyalty to childhood also promises an ironic loyalty to institutions, leaving them opened to all the dialectics of education.