Against Uncritical Pragmatism: Education for Doers Who Can Think and Thinkers Who Can Do

Speaker: Associate Professor Kenneth Paul Tan, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, OEA winner

Synopsis:
Pragmatism is popularly celebrated as a virtue of contemporary decision-making, where adaptability, a comfort with the eclectic, a focus on results, and faith in the cost-benefit calculus are valued over inflexible obedience to totalizing dogma. In Singapore, pragmatism is held up as a pillar of governance and a cultural reason for the nations widely acknowledged success. However, pragmatism can, in practice, degenerate into an anything goes attitude that replaces decision-making practices that are informed by an expanded rationality and deep knowledge of the significant ideas and values that have shaped the world. An uncritical pragmatism can limit human aspirations to a very narrow set of ends, obscured and protected from philosophical reflection, moral reasoning, and critique. Thus, ironically, pragmatism can turn into yet another dogma. In this lecture, I will argue for an educational approach that opposes uncritical pragmatism, suggesting from my own practice how curriculum and pedagogy can be designed to build capacity for philosophically informed critical thinking, a vital skill and habit for todays leadership in the public, private, and people sectors.

About the Speaker:
Kenneth Paul TAN is Assistant Dean (Academic Affairs) and Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy where he has taught since 2007. From 2000 to 2007, he taught at the National University of Singapores Political Science Department and University Scholars Programme. Since 2000, he has received more than 10 teaching awards. His research interests have been in the fields of political theory, comparative politics, and cinema studies, specializing in Singapore studies and focusing on topics such as democracy, civil society, media, the arts, multiculturalism, and meritocracy. He publishes in journals such as Asian Studies Review, Critical Asian Studies, International Political Science Review, and positions: east asia cultures critique, and has authored two books: Renaissance Singapore? Economy, Culture, and Politics (edited volume, NUS Press, 2007) and Cinema and Television in Singapore: Resistance in One Dimension (Brill, 2008). In 2008, he received a Fulbright Award to be a visiting researcher at Georgetown University (US). In 1995, he received a Lee Kuan Yew Postgraduate Scholarship to read for a Ph.D. in social and political sciences at the University of Cambridge (UK), which he completed in 2000. In 1994, he obtained a first class honours degree in the joint school of economics and politics at the University of Bristol (UK) on a Public Service Commission overseas merit (open) scholarship. He is the founding chair of the Asian Film Archive's board of directors, sits on the board of directors of theatre company The Necessary Stage, and has composed music for some of its performances. He is married to Clara Lim-Tan, principal of CHIJ (Kellock).

Category:

Education

Tags:

• NUS
• Kenneth Paul Tan
• Public Lectures
• 2009
• CDTL
• Teaching Excellence
• Outstanding Educator

[makeiteasyable]

d best ka talaga.

[gusylyda]

Join the opposition and help it grow why dont you be a doer and help your fellow thinker

[guineapug]

Remember the Sixties quip:

To be is to do - Rene Descartes

To do is to be -Jean Paul Sartres

Do be do be do - Frank Sinatra