EMMANUEL LEVINAS & PAULO FREIRE: THE ETHICS OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FACE-TO-FACE INTERACTION IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD

Abstract

The objective of this work is a reflection on the ethics of education on the net as a contribution to the face-to-face interaction in the virtual world. We think the ethics is a result of a process of responsible interchange with others. Two important thinkers of the last few decades, Emmanuel Levinas e Paulo Freire contribute each one with one’s unique approach to the questions surrounding ethic in the online education: ethic of responsibility and humanist ethic. Almost no attention has been paid to examining their views on ethic in online education, but this article, in part, fulfills a gap and attempts to mediate their two positions towards a broader critique of face-to-face in virtual world. This work shows some implications of interaction in the virtual world and questions the possibility of the paradox of face-to-face being virtual. The experiences as a professor of web-courses about Paulo Freire, at Latin American Council of Social Sciences and the theoretical revision (Freire, 1970, 1999, Levinas, 1980, 1997, Gomez, 2004,) contribute to this reflection. The results suggest that ethics of responsibility does not allow fleeing from the Other who demands attention, listening and dialog to speed up the learning process. By utilizing both Levinas and Freire, it is argued, against a conservative pedagogy based on an instrumental ethic and in favour of a participatory pedagogy that can help strengthen the learning.