Teaching, Friendship and Humanity: Speaking of Love and Humanity

This book extends liberal understandings in and about democratic citizenship education in relation to university pedagogy, more specifically higher teaching and learning. The authors’ argument is in defence of cultivating humanity through (higher) educational encounters on the basis of virtues that connect with the idea of love. Unlike romantic and erotic love, the book examines love in relation to educational encounters whereby humans or citizens can engage autonomously, deliberatively andresponsibly, yet lovingly. The rationale for focussing on the notion of philia (love) in educational encounters, the authors argue, is that doing so allows our current understandings of such encounters to be expanded beyond mere talk of reasonable engagements—autonomous action, deliberative iterations, and simple action—toward emotive enactments that could enhance human relations in educational encounters.