Education and Artificial Intelligence at the Scene of Writing: A Derridean Consideration

Abstract

Skepticism of the written word has been prevalent in philosophical discourse at least since the works of Plato. This article employs philosophical method. It situates the ongoing educational concern with AI Chatbots in terms of this skepticism toward writing. Specifically, this longstanding skepticism posits that the written word is an alienated form of the spoken word. This article demonstrates how two prevalent traditions of education—traditional and progressive—take up this same skepticism. The article calls upon the work of Jacques Derrida, whose deconstructive theories on Plato and the written word problematize this line of writerly skepticism. Derrida’s work on Rousseau’s Emile informs a more general approach to pedagogy which entails what Derrida calls “the logic of supplementarity .” This “logic” involves the paradoxical debt that writing owes to speech. Thus, one can discern a distinct sense in which education—in general—is implicated in a tension that exists between the written word to the spoken. Ultimately, this articles suggests that the ongoing concern with AI Chatbots—linked to an ancient skepticism toward writing—is none other than a concern with the very practice of education per se.