Becoming-other: Developing the ethics of integration

Abstract

This article analyzes the philosophy of French post-structuralist Gilles Deleuze in the context of post-formal education. The article specifically focuses on Deleuze's unorthodox approach to epistemology and ethics as future-oriented and creative, and lays down the foundations for a new ethics of integration in education derived from Deleuze's conceptualizations of 'becoming'; specifically 'becoming-other'. The call for 'a new ethic' was originally made by Erich Neumann in the troubled time of the aftermath of the Second World War in Europe. Contemporary conditions of cultural diversity point to the inadequacy of old ethical theories. The future form of educational philosophy encompasses not only resistance to the present but both the diagnosis and prognosis (creative, even if uncertain) for our actual multiple becomings in terms of becoming-revolutionary, becoming-democratic, becoming-pedagogical and becoming-ethical. The role of an educational philosopher becomes one of the clinician of culture; the latter described by Deleuze as an inventor of new immanent modes of existence that encompass critical, clinical and creative dimensions. The article's conclusion is that achieving genuine intercultural dialogue demands putting into practice a particular educational theory, which is defined in this article as an ethics of integration.