Levinas on the Border(s) :: Teaching Education

Levinas on the Border(s)ABSTRACT This essay explores my own posture of learn philosophy in a more or little traditional undergraduate setting but in a stylus that is especially relevant to the theme of this Congress, namely, the theme of philosophy educating humanity. In my case, I teach philosophy but from a aspect that is non-traditional and which undercuts the standard questions originating from and orient around a philosophia perennia. Specifically, I teach philosophy of religion from the perspective of Jewish philosophy, and even more specifically, from the perspective of the French Jewish philosophy of Emmanuelle Levinas. Moreover, I teach philosophy in an educational environment that is voice of the greater global community because I teach at the University of Texas at El Paso, situated on the fence that separates the United States and Latin America. Finally, my teaching situation is one that is further marginalized because of the precarious nature of my academic posi tion, namely, ingenious outside the traditional reverberates of philosophical faculty and working at basic as a part-timer and only recently as a full-time, non-tenure trend teacher of philosophy and humanities. Hence, I offer my experience of doing work of successfully teaching philosophy on the springs in the hope that others gathitherd here will be challenged to think differently about their own demeanor of educating others. What follows is about teaching the philosophy of Levinas, on the Mexico/USA border, on the border of a traditional discipline of philosophy (the philosophy of religion), and on the border of academia--as a non-tenure-track, non-traditionally trained Lecturer in Philosophy and Humanities at the University of Texas at El Paso. The relevance of these three interrelated themes for the Twentieth realness Congress of Philosophy, whose theme is Philosophy Educating Humanity, should be at least initially obvious, but a few preliminary remarks should clear up either confusions about my title. Most important of all, my scope is broader and deeper than the stated regional or academic limits. I contend that how I do what I do where I am at, and with whom I teach and learn has inter-national and inter-cultural significance which justifies inclusion body of my remarks in an international Paideia forum. As a non-Jew with a full stop in Religious Studies, I teach the philosophy of Levinas, a French-Jewish philosopher, in a relatively traditional Program of Philosophy to Spanish-speaking-Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and Anglo-Americans. Moreover, I do so in the predominantly Christo-centric and conservative cultural climate of the border region of El Paso, USA and Juarez, Mexico.