The Failure of Techno-Efficiency and the Reordering of Philosophical Values in Education
Michael Burdett, University of Nottingham

Enquiries to dpm50@cam.ac.uk)

In this work Michael Burdett explores how modern society has elevated efficiency to a supreme moral value, often at the expense of human spirituality and meaningful purpose. Drawing on the philosophies of Jacques Ellul and Martin Heidegger, he argues that our obsession with seamless technological processes can be dehumanizing and distracting. What is more, ‘technological thinking’ and supreme efficient value has increasingly taken over operative educational philosophy in schools and universities. How might moments of failure of such technological thinking and efficiency be productive to how we consider values themselves – especially in education? Indeed, it is precisely the failure of efficiency to speak in terms of purposes or ends, that leaves it ultimately lacking for both education and society as a whole. He ends the presentation with a related case study taken from recent work he’s done with faith-based schools in the UK on how the governing values at their schools should be influencing their policy on AI.

Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, Cambridge Branch Secretary, Daniel Moulin (dpm50@cam.ac.uk)