Home – Home – Jornals – "Philosophy of Education" 2008 number 4

The starting point of the author's reasoning is the philosophical "deconstruction" of Jacque Derrida, especially his works of the last period. The author emphasizes that Derrida's "deconstruction" does not mean total destruction and nihilism, but, on the contrary, opens and clears the ways to the original genuine concepts such as "justice", "gift", "forgiveness", and "hospitality".  In the second half of the paper the author considers a tragic incident in Tokyo, when a young man attacked random passer-byes. The underlying reason for such action was the feeling of alienation from society. The author analyzes how this is connected with the contemporary Japanese education system with its rigid pursuit of success. The author analyzes the Japanese education system as a whole and notices that the system has lost a certain foundation unconditional value of each pupil regardless of his/her academic achievements.