Between Simmel's Blasé Attitude and Intelligent Teachability

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore Georg Simmel's concept of the blasé attitude and to contrast it with the notion of intelligent teachability, derived from Aristotelian–Thomistic tradition. Here, Stanisław Gałkowski and Paweł Kaźmierczak view these two accounts through the lens of contemporary virtue epistemology, which helps to demonstrate their relevance to present-day educational theory, and to order the attitudes in question as intellectual counterparts of vice, akrasia, self-control, and virtue. There are two main criteria for how to distinguish these four states: (1) motivation to have epistemic contact with reality, and (2) the proper balance between receptivity and autonomy in learning. Taking the formation of intellectual character to be an important educational goal, Gałkowski and Kaźmierczak highlight the role of the teacher as an exemplar of mental disposition.