Personalism, Teaching, and Authority

Abstract The subject of this paper is the personalist political philosophy of Emmanuel Mounier (1905–1950). In this paper, I ask whether personalists should endorse the teaching of personalism in schools, as part of an official curriculum. I begin by discussing the criticism that doing so would violate the principle of Neutrality. I then present Mounier’s arguments against Neutrality, before posing a second objection to the teaching of personalism. By Mounier’s own lights, the authority for doing so requires that teachers know that personalism is true. Briefly, it seems that whatever personalist claims teachers know are uncontroversial but do not provide determinate ethical guidance, and that whatever personalist claims provide determinate ethical guidance are not known. From here, I take up Mounier’s fascination with the cultivation of elites who could implement personalism, and close by considering the difference between authoritarian and liberal variants of personalism.