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in this system the answers he gives to our questions must be known. They
are the “right” answers:
Q: “When was Napoleon born?”
A: “1769”
Right!
Student Æ Student
but
Q: “When was Napoleon born?”
A: Seven years before the Declaration of Independence.”
Wrong!
Student Æ Non-student
Tests are devices to establish a measure of trivialization. A perfect score in
a test is indicative of perfect trivialization: the student is completely pre-
dictable and thus can be admitted into society. He will cause neither any
surprises nor any trouble.
I shall call a question to which the answer is known an “illegitimate ques-
tion.” Wouldn't it be fascinating to contemplate an educational system that
would ask of its students to answer “legitimate questions” that is questions
to which the answers are unknown (H. Brün in a personal communication).
Would it not be even more fascinating to conceive of a society that would
establish such an educational system? The necessary condition for such an
utopia is that its members perceive one another as autonomous, non-trivial
beings. Such a society shall make, I predict, some of the most astounding
discoveries. Just for the record, I shall list the following three:
1. “Education is neither a right nor a privilege: it is a necessity.”
2. “Education is learning to ask legitimate questions.”
A society who has made these two discoveries will ultimately be able to
discover the third and most utopian one:
3. “A is better off when B is better off.”
From where we stand now, anyone who seriously makes just one of those
three propositions is bound to get into trouble. Maybe you remember the
story Ivan Karamazov makes up in order to intellectually needle his
younger brother Alyosha. The story is that of the Great Inquisitor. As you
recall, the Great Inquisitor walks on a very pleasant afternoon through his
town, I believe it is Salamanca; he is in good spirits. In the morning he has
burned at the stakes about a hundred and twenty heretics, he has done a
good job, everything is fine. Suddenly there is a crowd of people in front of
him, he moves closer to see what's going on, and he sees a stranger who is
putting his hand onto a lame person, and that lame one can walk. Then a
blind girl is brought before him, the stranger is putting his hand on her eyes,
and she can see. The Great Inquisitor knows immediately who He is, and
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