A Theory of Education, Enlightenment, and Universal Self-Realisation

In a talk Roy Bhaskar gave to a group of students in India in 2002, we can discern some elements of his theory of education . This chapter is a transcription of it and it is reproduced in this chapter from Chap. 11, Bhaskar (2002) From Science to Emancipation: Alienation and the Actuality of Enlightenment , New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, London, Sage. In Roy Bhaskar’s actual words: ‘I think that if you are truly spiritual, if you really have no ego, if you really love other people, then you must be engaged in activities of practical transformation in the world. So real spirituality for me is what I call practical mysticism. That is very down to earth, and that is entirely engaged in putting yourself in the service of the cause of human emancipation, in fact universal self-realisation. But it is also interestingly enough the approach which is implicit in western and secular theories of emancipation. That is very similar to the standpoint of Marx—and Marx was an atheist—when he said that in a communist society the free development of each would be the condition of the free development of all. In other words, your well being , your flourishing was the condition for my own. It was as important to me as mine. In other words, it is no good my being free, it is no good my being the most fantastically improved and perfect person, if you are still miserable and unhappy.’