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Towards a revaluation of Philosophy in dialogue Sonia París-Albert / [email protected] Universitat Jaume I de Castellón, España Abstract: This work, which is mainly based on a Western view and which takes into account the
reality in Spain, is a reflection about the role Philosophy nowadays has. Taking both Philosophy for Children and Philosophy for Peace as its references, this study understands the Philosophical thinking as necessary to produce the indignation that will make the organization of social movements possible, provoking at the same time the opportunity to imagine peaceful alternatives for human suffering and the natural one. The analysis of indignation is done through Peter Frederick Strawson's theory in connection with Honneth's research about recognition.
Key words: Philosophy, indignation, imagination and recognition.
Resumen: Este trabajo, realizado desde una perspectiva occidental y teniendo en cuenta,
especialmente, la realidad de España, consiste en una reflexión sobre el papel que la filosofía puede tener hoy en día. Apoyándose en las escuelas de la filosofía para niños y de la filosofía para la paz, entiende que el pensamiento filosófico es necesario para dar lugar a la indignación que ha de hacer posible la organización de movimientos sociales, propiciando, al mismo tiempo, la oportunidad de imaginar alternativas al sufrimiento humano y a la naturaleza por medios pacíficos. El estudio de la indignación se ha elaborado a partir de la teoría de Peter Frederick Strawson y en conexión con las investigaciones sobre el reconocimiento de Axel Honneth.
Palabras clave: filosofía, indignación, imaginación y reconocimiento.
ISSN 1405-1435, UAEMex, no. 68, May - August 2015 Convergencia, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, no. 68, 2015, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México Introduction1
Patas arriba [Upside Down]. This expression was used by Eduardo Galeano a couple
of years ago in his book Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World (Patas arriba: La escuela del mundo al revés; 1998), in which he intended to make it evident that the ongoing occurrences seem to distort the world, giving primacy to a sentiment of strangeness and unbalance in regards to the world order. In order to combat these sentiments, Galeano proposed the school of the upside-down world (A Primer for the Looking-Glass World), in which the right to dream of another world would have to be possible, on the basis of the capability to imagine human relationships without fear, another much more humane technological development, other consumption patterns, alternative mass media, other sort of social justice in accordance with the minimal human rights, as well as other policies no-propitious to economic inequalities and gaps between wealthy and poor. One of a kind call to imagination and delirium, as it is noticed in his own words in the following extracts: What if we start exercising the never claimed right to dream? What if we rave awhile? Let's fix our eyes beyond infamy to guess other world is possible: […]The crime of stupidity will be incorporated into the penal codes, which is committed by those who live to have or earn, instead of living just because, as the bird sings without knowing it sings and, as the kid plays without knowing he plays; […]The economists won't call standard of living to consumption level, nor do they call quality of life to the amount of things; […]Politicians won't believe the poor love eating promises; […]Food won't be a merchandise, nor communication business, because food and communication are human rights; […]Street kids won't be treated as if they were garbage, because there won't be street kids; wealthy kids won't be treated as if they were money, because there won't be wealthy kids;Education won't be the privilege of those who can afford it;Police won't be the curse of those who can't buy it; 1 This work inserts in the research project "De víctimas a indignados: visibilidad mediática, migración de imágenes, espectacularización de los conflictos y procesos de transformación social hacia una cultura de paz" [From victims to outraged: media visibility, image migration, conflicts made spectacles and process of social transformations toward a peace culture] (code P1·1A2012-05), directed by Dr. Vicente José Benet Ferrando of the Department of Communication Sciences of Jaume I University, funded by Research Promotion Plan of the same university.
Sonia París-Albert. Towards a revaluation of Philosophy in dialogue with indignation Justice and liberty, Siamese sisters condemned to live severed, they will reunite, very tightly back to back; […]But in this world torpid and fucked-up, every night will be lived as if it were the last and each day, as if it were the first (Galeano, 1998: 222-224).
This article also intends to be a call for such imagination that will help us to search for peaceful alternatives to face the current reality, especially convulse in the case of Spain, as a consequence of the already so famous financial crisis, which has made room for a series of policies favorable to social cutbacks as a way to grow.
This way, these pages will start from the role that philosophy nowadays can have as a reflection that enables becoming aware and critically dialogue, as well as the so necessary feeling of indignation to organize social movements in favor of social change. According to this interpretation, this article will take into account the movement of philosophy for children, as it will defend the importance of educating with the values of philosophical reflection from early ages, to that its imprint will be seen so natural that, over time, it does not pose any difficulty to criticize the established social structures and imagine possible alternatives to that social order so many times imposed by those with the most power.
Once approached this reflection on the relevance of philosophy and philosophy for children nowadays, the text will delve into indignation as a sentiment which has to be taught on, in order to be able to organize social movements favorable to social change. This study will be basically carried out from a philosophic perspective not leaving aside its connection with some philosophical tasks of recognition, such as the one produced by Axel Honneth (1997), a third-generation Frankfurt School philosopher. The text will conclude with a brief reflection as a recapitulation of how education in indignation can help organize social movements and peacefully transform the unjust realities that may arise.
I would like to close this introduction pointing out that the philosophical perspective that will be shown along these pages will be nourished, continually, by Philosophy for Peace, a practical and applied philosophy on which we have been working in Chaire UNESCO de philosophie pour la paix [UNESCO chair on Philosophy for Peace] of Jaume I University, and the Inter-university Institute of Social Development and Peace of the same university, whose epistemological proposal supposes the recovery of our capabilities to accomplish the transformation of human suffering and nature by peaceful means (Comins Mingol et al., 2010; Martínez Guzmán, 2001 and 2005; Martínez Guzmán et al., 2009; París Albert et al., 2011).
Convergencia, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, no. 68, 2015, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México Revaluating philosophy for children and philosophy for peace: a song to
imagination
The world is upside down either because of the financial crisis and the social cutbacks in Spain or else, because of different reasons in any other place on planet earth. In Spain, as in other countries, many people live these moments under pressure from the indecision of not knowing what will occur with their lives before a future that is not promising at all; moreover, this is a tendency that does not seem to change in the coming years. We only have to hear the data on unemployed people and/or the doubts that arise from what sort of actions will be useful to create new job posts. In the face of these unsustainable concerns for many families, there is a large number of researches that state that two are the solutions: medicate or listen to philosophy in order to face the anxiousness produced by such experiences. This way, in the fashion of what was expressed by Lou Marinoff in Plato not Prozac (Más Platón y menos Prozac; 2005), more often than not the assistance of philosophy is recommended, as it presupposes that a person prefers, before living the lie of a reality created by the intake of some medication, to acknowledge thoroughly their own reality, because only so this person will be capable of finding solutions to their problems.
These are the studies and works that are needed to recover in these pages, as they potentiate the value of philosophy in times of crisis, as it was expressed by Edmund Husserl in The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (La crisis de las ciencias humanas y sociales; 1991), in which he stated that the philosopher is the functionary of humanity, an expression he resorted to point out the social task of the one that exercises philosophy and which later, Javier San Martín (2006) interpreted as the profession among professions (París Albert, 2010a).
Philosophy shall be understood as a concern for all what surrounds human being and it should not be contented with partial knowledge on what enfolds man, but as it is stated from its etymological definition,2 it shall deepen into the desire to learn about the essences, the things per se, as this "impulsive strength seems 2 Corominas' (1961: 267) Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana [Brief etymological dictionary of Castilian language] points at its precedence from Greek philéō (I love). Therefore, philosophía (φιλοσοφια) would be composed of philein (love for) and sophia (wisdom), producing philosophía as "love for wisdom" (Ferrater Mora, 1994) and philósophos as the person who likes an intellectual art or science (Corominas, 1961: 267). This definition can be joined by other that stresses the notion of thaumatzein, which implies a attitude of strangeness admiration (Martínez Guzmán, 2005).
Sonia París-Albert. Towards a revaluation of Philosophy in dialogue with indignation to have been what Aristotle pointed out as the beginning of every philosophy: wonder. The curiosity for the nature of things, the desire to learn for the sake of learning" (Armstrong, 1966: 13-14). In the line of recovering nowadays the value of curiosity, learning for the sake of it, so proper to philosophy, one finds a wide variety of current publications that, from one or another perspective, revaluating the human capability of critique and dialogue, to face current social issues from the pure questioning and the most innocent imagination. All these publications are texts that intend to show how much philosophical reflection can help to reconstruct these human capabilities (criticism, questioning, dialogue, imagination…), thereby, how important the presence of this discipline is, not only in forma education, but in any of the spheres of our most quotidian life.3 Recent publications, which to a certain extent, what they do is to continue with the working line of the already classic Sophie's world (El mundo de Sofía; 2008) by Jostein Gaarder, or other similar as If minds had toes (Si la mente tuviera alas: una novela sobre la filosofía en la vida cotidiana; 2007) by Lucy Eyre. These books, in addition to recover the role of philosophy, try to make it more human, showing that not only those who we have always called philosophers, whom we have always studied at schools, institutes and universities, are the ones that can philosophize, but the competence of thinking, of that curiosity that has been mentioned, is proper to every human being; hence, philosophical reflection is possible for every person.4 Also Matthew Lipman (1988a, 1988b, 1989a, 1990, 1993, 2000a, 2000b and 2004a) defended this importance of philosophy in his researches, up to the point 3 To name some of these publications, distinguishable is the book that David Papineau published in 2004, Philosophy: The Illustrated Guide to Understanding and Using Philosophy Today (Filosofía. Guía ilustrada para comprender y usar la filosofía hoy en día) in which he attempts to summarize some of the most distinguishable contributions of occidental thinkers, from Plato to Derrida. The author carries out this journey looking for connections proper to XXI century problems and especially related to science, technology, cloning, and stem cell research. In 2011, José Ignacio Galparsoro also published Pensar la filosofía hoy [Think of philosophy today], a book that refers to who philosophy does not seem to be nowadays in the field of knowledge, unlike what occurs with other disciplines, which besides are attributed a series of competences traditionally in the scope of philosophy. In the same fashion Emilio Lledó Iñigo presented his book La filosofía hoy [Philosophy today], in which he invites to reflect on its value to interpret the world where we live.
4 With this same intention of giving philosophy a more quotidian meaning, many other books are published such as: Plato and a platypus walk into a bar…: understanding philosophy through jokes (Platón y un ornitorrinco entran en un bar: la filosofía explicada con humor; 2009) by Daniel Klein and Thomas Cathcart, Filosofía para bufones [Philosophy for buffoons] by Pedro González Calero (2007) and Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way [Los superhéroes y la filosofía: la verdad, la justicia y el moso socrático; 2010] by Tom Morris.
Convergencia, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, no. 68, 2015, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México of considering indispensable that even the youngest had the opportunity to philosophize. This way, he gave birth to the school of philosophy for children, which still retains much importance nowadays by means of research groups and diverse organizations. Philosophy for children emphasizes the imagination of the youngest and their capability to make questions about all those things that are strange and/or novel for them. It is an attempt to potentiate this capability, to work it, to give it the role it deserves in views of preventing its loss as we grow and age. John Paul Lederach, one of the maximum representatives of peace and conflict studies, called attention on this imagination in his book The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace (La imaginación moral: el arte y el alma de la construcción de la paz; 2008) underscoring they are needed to practice peaceful alternatives in the transformation of conflicts. According to philosophy for children the habit of imagination from early ages would make these calls not so necessary, for there would be such a tendency to it that custom would remove difficulty to its use, being easier at older ages the fact of facing problems devising alternative via questioning, dialogue and criticism.
[…] it is proposed to exercise the mind by means of disciplinary and stimulating thinking and structured interaction. It also pursues the social goal of teaching democratic decision making processes. It is almost certain that regular participation in these groups contributes to develop self-consciousness and personal flexibility (Haynes, 2004: 33).
According to Joanna Haynes (2004), the formation of the school of philosophy for children does not start from any defined program, instead, it consist in a dialogue that configures from the interests and concerns that the reading of a story, a tale or poem, generates in the youngest. This way, all the stated questions are taken into account, even though those which do not have an easy answer are the ones that create a greater debate.
This way, the professorate should only strive to make children discuss introducing conceptual tools to generate the development of ideas, respecting the rhythm of the youngest, with neither predefined objectives nor the need to reach solutions. The only intention is to collaborate offering different interpretations of one same topic.5 Then, bearing in mind the ideas so far mentioned, the steps of philosophical enquiry in the school of philosophy for children, according to Joanna Haynes (2004), will be the following: 5 To practice these dialogues there are classic materials by Matthew Lipman, such as Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery (El descubrimiento de Harry; 1988c), Lisa (1988d), Pixie (1989b), Mark (1989c), Kio and Gus (Kio y Guss; 1992), Elfie (2000c), Suki (2000d), Nous (2004b), and Natasha: Vygotskian Dialogues (Natasha: aprender a pensar con Vygostky: una teoría narrada en clave de ficción; 2004c).
Sonia París-Albert. Towards a revaluation of Philosophy in dialogue with indignation Step 1: the rules of the game are set Step 2: a shared stimulus that incentivizes enquiry is presented Step 3: pause to think Step 4: the youngest make questions and each one of them is registered Step 5: connections between questions are sought Step 6: a question is chosen to begin with the reflection; the election of this question should involve the whole group. On occasions, this step is omitted if the debate Step 7: children listen to their partners and state new reflection questions as well Step 8: a table with the main worked ideas is elaborated Step 9: the main ideas are reached; the performance can be valued, being the very children those who reach the conclusions, make an activity to continue, etcetera All in all, it is about teaching to think, to question and to imagine; that children have a public voice; that they become accustomed to using their own ideas (Haynes, 2004: 35). This way, besides, philosophy for children implies developing participatory and democratic abilities along the dialogue, which implies that children accustomed to these practices will be better prepared to live by their own voices, thoughts and beliefs. This, indubitably, will help them in the future to build a world where democratic participation will be much more real.
These children manage to grasp how to risk in their thinking and questions […] This way, philosophy with children is an excellent way to contribute to promote and exercise their rights as citizens (Haynes, 2004: 87).
Philosophy for children, therefore, as other cited materials, helps, with no shadow of a doubt, to recover the value of philosophy in an upside-down world and makes it possible to imagine other ways to face the problems which we encounter day after day. At this point is where philosophy for children can link with philosophy for peace,6 which is nothing but a theoretical-practical research on the possibilities to build a peaceful world by means of philosophical reflection (Comins Mingol et al., 2010; Martínez Guzmán, 2001, 2005; Martínez Guzmán et al., 2009; París Albert et al., 2011).
This is the reason why philosophy for peace is born in the framework of peace studies in the 1990's, the peak of the growth for these studies in Spain; in this case, with the intention to make philosophy a more applied discipline, capable of 6 As previously stated, philosophy for peace is a research line started by Dr. Vicent Martínez Guzmán, which has been worked with in UNESCO chair on Philosophy for Peace of the Inter-university Institute of Social Development and Peace of Jaume I University. At the teaching level it is offered, especially, in the University Master and the Doctorate in International Studies on Peace, Conflicts and Development of the same university.
Convergencia, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, no. 68, 2015, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México answering actual problematic situations with people we come across, and also with the intention of offering peaceful alternatives favorable for their transformation.7 And this is the ultimate objective of philosophy for peace, i.e., the peaceful transformation of the suffering of mankind and nature, as mentioned in the introduction of this work, thus these researches endeavor to continuously imagine other possible ways to make things, without using violence, by peaceful means. Hence, its entire theoretical body moves around the notion of positive peace8 who Johan Galtung (1999, 2003), one of the founders of peace studies, conceived in his time and upon which Martínez Guzmán (2001, 2005) built the epistemological statute of philosophy for peace, commonly known as epistemological spin.
Only to bring to mind some of its fifteen points will we say that the theoretical presuppositions of the epistemological statute start from the standpoint of inter- subjectivity and performativity, this is to say, of our competences to relate with other people and to account for the ways we relate, and emphasize communication dialogue, not the dichotomy between facts and values, as well between culture and nature, gender perspective, sentiments and the comprehension of the world as a diversity of places on the basis of interculturality theories (Martínez Guzmán, 2001, 2005).
I held the opinion that potentiating the value of philosophy in the youngest, as well as other forms of philosophizing, closer to our quotidianness, can help us verify the thesis that works as the starting point of this work, which hoists the role of philosophical reflection in current society, making it, at the same time, more human. There is no doubt that the capabilities to dialogue, question, act, make oneself be heard, have a greater commitment and responsibility —which are worked with these philosophical schools— are very useful to promote, at the same time, our capability to imagine, as Eduardo Galeano (1998) or John Paul Lederach (2008) would say, other possible ways to feel outraged and face that indignation.
7 Although it is important to bear in mind that philosophical reflection and especially philosophy for peace are capable of concretely proposing actions to peacefully transform the suffering of humans and nature, the finality of this work is that of producing a reflection on the need to recover the imagination and the feeling of indignation in current society so that we the people become increasingly capable of thinking those possible concrete actions.
8 Positive peace supposes defining peace by means of what peace is, such as that situation favorable to the satisfaction of basic human rights, in which justice is possible and also development is favored. This concept of peace differs from that more traditional other, according to which peace is no-war, producing the notion of negative peace. Sonia París-Albert. Towards a revaluation of Philosophy in dialogue with indignation Revalue philosophy. Peaceful struggles and social movements: a song to
indignation in dialogue with recognition
Indignation; this is the last term referred to in the previous paragraph, as I consider it
a key concept in current society, at any place we place ourselves. It is certainly true that this work is approached from an occidental perspective, and more so, bearing in mind the Spanish reality of our days, which is the one that the author best knows. However, it is understood that indignation is a feeling preset at worldwide level. Even if not because of economic and social policy reasons, because of others, but we the people feel that indignation when something affects us, or simply before situations that generate suffering to other human beings or nature, that make us shiver so badly that there is only room for indignation.
In the case of Spanish society nowadays we could talk of the indignation caused by cutbacks in social policies, the alleged corruption cases, unemployment figures, the scarce labor offer, the increase in the price of basic products, the electricity bill… and we could go on and on to make a virtually endless list.
Philosophy for children and philosophy for peace are two schools which at the same time recover the role of philosophy, recover the importance of being capable of feeling indignation. More so, if one takes into account that providing philosophy with its value, they bring that love for wisdom, the admiration of longing for knowledge, the curiosity, that radical carrying on thinking Socrates referred to (París Albert, 2013, which fully favor the revival of the indignation capability, for only when we question things, when we ask about them, do we know better their pros and cons, therefore we can imagine nonviolent actions to be performed, valid to transform the suffering of humans and nature.
We might say that feeling outraged means to feeling annoyed at something that has occurred or someone else has made, which additionally is considered unfair. Such is the value given and to a certain extent indignation is considered necessary, that not only are social movements, such as 15-M in Spain, organized, but also more publications with the intention of approaching this topic from academic, critical and constructive stances are found. This way, for instance, we can mention the book by Guy Debord (2013) owing to the role philosophy has in him, as it is notices in the very title Filosofía para indignados. Textos situacionistas [Philosophy for the outraged; Situationist texts], in which the author studies the similitudes between 15-M and the Situationist International. In both cases, Debord states, the imaginative and active use of mass media, the critical use of art in the quotidian, the calls for games and experimentation, and the general question of the society of the spectacle and the principle of intellectual property have a distinguishable role.
Convergencia, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, no. 68, 2015, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México In spite of the large amount of current publications, researches on indignation have had a widespread presence in general and academic literature. It is not necessary to make an apologia of the great transcendence it had in its day, and still has, Pedagogy of indignation (Pedagogía de la indignación) by Paulo Freire (2001), a complement to his two large works, Pedagogy of the oppressed (Pedagogía del oprimido; 1973) and Pedagogy of hope: reliving Pedagogy of the oppressed (Pedagogía de la esperanza. Un reencuentro con la pedagogía del oprimido; 1993), three books which cannot but be cited, as they have nourished, partially, many other researches carried out by other scholars, who have read and also worked Freire. I refer, for instance, to: Spanish pedagogue Xesús Jares, who wrote books such as Educar para la paz en tiempos difíciles [Educate for peace in hard times] (2004); Educar para la verdad y la esperanza: en tiempos de globalización, guerra preventiva y terrorismos [Educate for truth and hope: in times of globalization, preemptive war and terrorisms] (2005); and Pedagogía de la convivencia [Pedagogy for living together] (2006).
In the sphere of philosophy there are also classic studies from which to work indignation, as it is the case of Peter Frederick Strawson's Freedom and resentment and other essays (Libertad y resentimiento y otros ensayos; 1995), in which he differentiates three postures to bear in mind: 1) how I feel for what they do to me; 2) how I feel for what I do; 3) how I feel for that second people to third people.
Strawson (1995) states that the three attitudes are important, being necessary to take all of them into account, for if we only thought of what we do, we would be saints. This is the reason why Strawson says we should not forget any of the three postures, for we shall be neither egotistic nor saints, but besides, we shall be concerned by those things people do to one another, even though these do not affect us personally. At this last attitude is where Strawson places indignation, that capability that, as previously stated, has to do with feeling annoyed because of things that occur and which we disagree with owing to the suffering they cause in human beings and in nature. However, I would like to pause here, I understand that indignation can also arise from those other things that do occur to us, which indeed personally affect us and which we also disagree with. Once again, as an example, we only have to think of the large number of social movements nowadays organized in Spain, and in which the participants can be affected or not by the social policies and the situations that provoke the demonstrations: those which they want to transform.
And this dynamic makes me feel that it is the same anywhere in the world, when social movements are extolled as demonstrations, to defend some human rights deemed necessary, and with the intention of humanizing social structures, Sonia París-Albert. Towards a revaluation of Philosophy in dialogue with indignation policies, the economy… this is, longing for them to be more human. Through the mass media we notice how in these movements not only people who feel outraged by the realities of many other million human beings are involved, but also the very affected, who want the3ir voice to be heard, narrating their stories, asking for accountability and demanding solutions. As it is noticed in the ideas commented in previous paragraphs, in the sense, the feeling of indignation is one of the most powerful means for social mobilization we have available, hence that it is so necessary to educate in it; thereby, it is indispensable to recover the role of philosophy in current society, of the philosophy for children and philosophy for peace as schools that help in this educational task. Feeing outraged makes it possible become empowered to ask for accountability, to demand solutions, to socially organize, or if we make use of the terminology by Axel Honneth, it favors struggle in favor of recovering the proper rights.
Axel Honneth, a third-generation Frankfurt school philosopher, is mentioned in this text due to the emphasis social movements have in his researches in virtue of the design of a philosophy based upon the study of three types of disdain, which at the same time make room for three types of recognition (Honneth, 1997, 2007a, 2007b and 2009). For Axel Honneth, modern society is suffering from a series of social pathologies, caused by certain violent actions that undermine the possibility to recognize people, and at the same time, demand social mobilization to face such pathologies, and in favor or recognition. It is noticed, then, how in this thinker's theory the fact of feeling recognized has great importance as it is the search for the recognition of the starting point, the drive that in his theory starts social mobilization, as well as the thrill of feeling recognized that a person has as they acquire their rights, the finality of the cycle, the end of that social mobilization. Axel Honneth (1997) provides recognition with so much value that he justifies social mobilizations as authentic struggles for recognition, in which the effort to acquire some rights presupposes greater recognition, and in which the need to struggle takes place because the absence of some rights is lived by the people as disregard, as a detriment to self-recognition. From this conception comes the fact that, for Axel Honneth, social justice basically depends on recognition, unlike what Nancy Fraser (2006) proposes; who is interested in also considering the distributive policies from the standpoint of social justice. Convergencia, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, no. 68, 2015, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México This way, Nancy Fraser produces a dual model according to which, depending on the analysis case, the reason for the struggle —which at the same time is in favor social justice— either because of recognition issues or because of a bad distribution of incomes, but never because of only one of these two reasons, thus both have to be analyzed, even though it can be the case that one of them has a heavier weight than the other. To clarify these ideas, Nancy Fraser (2006) includes the example of homosexuality.
According to the author, the reasons why homosexual individuals social organize in favor of their rights, therefore, greater social justice, do not only depend on the search for recognition, but also on a necessary better distribution of resources. Hence, even if it is true that in these struggles homosexual individuals strive for wider social recognition, it is also true that they struggle against those other economic policies that still nowadays make it difficult that a homosexual individual can hold certain job posts, unlike what occurs with the one that claims to be heterosexual. Although in this case questions referring to recognition might have a heavier weight, for Nancy Fraser it is also necessary to bear in mind the other side of the coin, the issues referring to distribution. Nevertheless, Axel Honneth (1997) will analyze these cases, mainly from the perspective of recognition, stating that in the background of these struggles there is always the search for feeling recognized, for the even the improvement of economic issues implies more recognition.
A concept which deserves especial mention in these pages is that of struggle that, as noticed, is constantly used in Axel Honneth's theory, as opposed to self- preservation struggles of which Hobbes and Machiavelli (Honneth, 1997) talked of previously. However, while those struggles for self-reservation did seem to have a violent nature because they presupposed to start from an egotistic perspective, according to which the most important was the individual interest and the defense of the proper goods, justifying thus any action, Axel Honneth's struggles for recognition are merely a call for social mobilization in fvor of recognition, which neither suppose nor justify violent organization whatsoever. It is so that his research fits so well with the presuppositions of philosophy for children and philosophy for peace, which we are providing with so much transcendence in this pages. The dual meaning of the notion of struggle can also be found in the very definition of the verb struggle. In such manner that if according to the etymological definition, the verb struggle* comes from Latin luctari and joined with the prepositions "with", "against" and "for", it means, on the one side, using the proper forces and means to defeat the other, an obstacle or acquiring something; on the other, it is the reciprocal attack people perform with Sonia París-Albert. Towards a revaluation of Philosophy in dialogue with indignation their forces and weapons (Moliner, 1997). Nonetheless, in a figurative meaning, that "struggling with, against and for" can be seen as the individual and collective effort that is undertaken to accomplish something without the necessary use of violence force. This las is the meaning that comes also from the theory of Honneth, as it is verified in the following quotation: […] was capable of giving a new theoretical configuration to the model of "social struggle" introduced by Machiavelli and Hobbes: he did no see in this conflict simply a negativity which has to be neutralized, but he redirected it to moral impulses. Since he had previously attributed the specific meaning of an injury of social relationships of recognition to the action of the struggle, he was able as well to recognize in it the central medium of an ethical formation process f the human spirit. This is to say, the very experience of confliction takes him to the process of ethical formation to overcome those conflicts (Almarza, 2010: 10).
Recognition? Indignation? Can these concepts be intertwined? In this article the answer is affirmative. If it has been previously said that struggling can be seen as an individual or collective effort to reach something without the necessary use of violence, indignation would be that feeling that takes place when we are aware that we are being undervalued (we or third parties), that we are not recognized, therefore, it will be the feeling that will empower us to struggle, to ask for accountability and to endeavor to ask for solutions by means of social mobilization and in favor of recognition. All of this we will defend in this work, always by peaceful means (Comins et al., 2011a, 2011b; París, 2010b, 2013). Hence the necessity to educate The connection that in these pages we are establishing between recognition and indignation can be broadened further if one bears in mind that Axel Honneth (1997) proposes the distinction between three sorts of recognition that arise from three disdains. Here the author refers to: 1) recognition to physical integrity, which appears as a consequence of attitudes based upon love, producing an increase in self-confidence; 2) recognition as members of a juridical community, which is a consequence of the attitudes based on respect, thus producing an increase in self- respect; 3) recognition to different ways of life, which appear as a consequence of attitudes based on solidarity, producing an increase in self-esteem. This differentiation takes to the affirmation that disdain for any of these three forms of recognition will be the cause for the necessary indignation to organize social struggles, visible through social movements, which we are defending in this work and will be the one that at the same time will allow us to accomplish the so longed for recognition. However, the idea that actually underscored in this pages, especially by means of Axel Honneth's texts, is the role social movements have in Convergencia, Revista de Ciencias Sociales, no. 68, 2015, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México the transformation of the suffering of human and nature by peaceful means, not forgetting that indignation is one of those key sentiments that make it possible that people empower, this is to say, to adopt a more active role in virtue of becoming aware of the problems that affect mankind and to look for much more humane alternatives for such problems. As it is noticed, the reflection on indignation takes place in this article, from a concrete posture, one in connection with Axel Honneth's recognition theory, in spite of being fully aware that it may be broadened from many other philosophical perspectives, which do not necessarily would take only into account the importance of feeling recognized. Nevertheless, this theory was chosen due to its connection with philosophy for peace of UNESCO chair on Philosophy for Peace of Jaume I University, which —as previously stated— also works as a foundation for the stated ideas. Only to make a mention, it is important to remember that the concept of recognition of Axel Honneth joins the reciprocal or mutual adjective, and so emphasizes the importance of intersubjectivity, of human relationships, as it is done from philosophy for peace. As Kant (1985) would say, we the people have an unsociable sociability, which means that we need the others, even though on occasion we acted as if it were not so. The tendency to sociability determines our lives, and this is the reason why it is so necessary for us to relate with those around us, even to recognize ourselves and the others. This is the reason why mutual recognition adopts a dialectical sense according to which, and according to Hegel's tradition, I recognize myself only when I recognize the others, for it is in that very moment when I understand the differences and similarities we have as human beings. Then and according to these ideas, our identity is built in an intersubjective manner, in contact with other people, recognizing myself in the very moment in which I realize which features make similar and different to other people. It is thus noticed that this mutual recognition is very different from the other suited types, for instance, by Paul Ricoeur (2005) in his works, in which he also points out recognition as identification and recognition of the self. Sonia París-Albert. Towards a revaluation of Philosophy in dialogue with indignation As a conclusion
Be outraged; become empowered. Adopt an active role. Imagine other more
humane alternatives for the problems that affect society. These are affirmations that have been made in these pages in views of underscoring the importance of feeling indignation and educating on this feeling, mainly to be able to organize peaceful social struggles (social movements) propitious for the peaceful transformation of unjust realities. Ideas that, as it is noticed, have a direct relation with the objective stated in this text, by means of which emphasis is paid on the need to potentiate imagination and indignation, being these two attitudes sought from philosophy for peace (supported in this text by the argumentations of the school of philosophy for children), for what certainly is intended is to build peaceful alternatives for the transformation of the suffering of humans and nature.
Therefore, we must bear in mind that in this work, reflection has been made from a look more akin to philosophy and connected with Peter Frederick Strawson's linguistic phenomenology and Axel Honneth's mutual recognition theory. Moreover, the case of Spain has been contextualized due to the situation of financial crisis and social cutbacks the country experiences. However, it is underscored that this study can be extrapolated to anywhere in the world where violence favorable to social injustice arises. Educate in indignation. Show its social need. Underscore the role that philosophy can perform to attain such objective, and also that of philosophy for children and philosophy for peace. Schools that generate a critical spirit and the questioning so necessary to establish dialogues to transform violent realities by peaceful means. Thoughts capable of provoking delirium and imagination, which will make it possible to approach social injustice and transform the world which, right now, seems to be upside down. Bibliography
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Sonia París Albert. Doctor from Jaume I University (Castellón, Spain), professor
of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and Sociology of the same university. Research lines: history of philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy for peace and peaceful conflict transformation. Recent publications: Sonia París Albert, "Philosophy, Recognition and Indignation", in Peace Review. A Journal of Social Science, vol. 25, no. 3 (2013); Sonia París Albert, "Sobre ciertos dualismos de la racionalidad en diálogo con la Neurofilosofía", in Daimon. Revista Internacional de Filosofía, no. 59 (2013); Irene Comins Mingol and Sonia París Albert, "Los desafíos de la neurociencia. Un análisis desde la filosofía para la paz", in Convergencia. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, year 20, no. 62 (2013).
Reception: January 30th, 2014 Approval: December 10th, 2014

Source: http://convergencia.uaemex.mx/article/viewFile/3657/2611