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Alois Agus Nugroho: A man of many talents
Courtesy of Alois Agus NugrohoSpecializing in more than one discipline is a tough profession for many
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Courtesy of Alois Agus Nugroho
Specializing in more than one discipline is a tough profession for many. But, that doesn’t apply to Alois Agus Nugroho.
When asked what he really is, Agus paused for a moment, barely able to give a definite answer.
“I myself don’t even know what I’m really specializing in,” he said during the interview. “I love philosophy, but I am also fond of writing poems and commenting on national politics both in print and in the electronic media.”
With his mixed background, Agus is a versatile scholar. He studied at the University of Indonesia from 1973 to 1975, majoring in medicine, but never completed his studies. He then took a bookkeeping course in 1975.
Three years later, after his long academic journey, he eventually found his real passion — studying philosophy at Driyarkara School of Philosophy — and, eventually, managed to earn his bachelor.
“I chose philosophy as a field of study because it is a thorough and strongly rooted reflection of a phenomenon,” Agus said.
In 1991, he received his PhD. in Philosophy from one of the world’s prestigious universities, Hoger Institut voor Wijsbegeerte, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
As a poetry lover, Agus had started writing poems when he was still a student. A dozen of his poems were published by the Kompas daily and many more were printed in the form of anthologies. One of his most famous poems ever written is Kepada Aya Miura (To Aya Miura), published in 2003.
As an astute political analyst and a cultural observer, Agus is always critical in his approach to viewing and discussing phenomena of life.
His strong background in philosophy seems to have enabled him to merge insights dexterously from varied perspectives. No wonder his writings are always replete with a coherent synthesis of wide-ranging points of view.
Reading his publications in academic journals and newspapers, one might conclude that Agus is an incisive analyst who tries to amalgamate philosophical, ethical, cultural and political perspectives.
He, however, rejects the use of the term “analysis” to refer to ideas he wrote. For him, such a term sounds less relevant when things are viewed from a pure humane perspective.
“What I write in many publications and what I speak in symposiums is not primarily analysis,
nor scrutiny of a problem to be solved easily, but rather a discourse,” Agus said.
He added that a field like education needed to be approached from a humane perspective because by its very nature education is humanizing, a process of enabling human beings to self-actualize themselves.
This, as he argues, can be realized by viewing education as cultural action. “Education as cultural action should lay emphasis on the value system of society’s identity and behavior. We will nurture robotic, banal and nonreflexive culture unless we’re aware of it.”
In the context of cultural action, Agus metaphorically said that a teacher should become “a strong poet”, a term he borrows from philosopher Richard Rorty.
“Teachers shouldn’t supposedly inculcate students with a cultural tradition, and then infuse it to
them, but should instead re-describe the existing cultural tradition. Because we are in touch with other
cultural traditions, we will perpetuate a cultural hegemony if we view our culture as the tradition of Indonesia only.
“The task of a strong poet then is to glimpse the richness of vocabulary from other cultural traditions with awe, while at the same time to admire the wealth of his own tradition.”
Now the professor of philosophy, who teaches political communication ethics, communication philosophy and business ethics, laments the practice of today’s education as a product of the educational service industry, which relies heavily on branding.
“We are bewitched by capitalism that sees education as part of what Michael Foucault called the ‘order of things’,” said the 55-year-old.
Lending the insight from the postmodernism as the cultural logic of late capitalism, Agus lashed out at our goal of education, which is directed toward hedonistic attitudes of possessing things to satisfy such needs as security, comfort and prestige.
He argued the type of culture cultivated depended on the educational program run.
“Capitalism has reduced education as a sole instrument used to get access to things that are not really fundamental to human life.”
