This article assesses Bernard Stiegler’s critique of infantilization. Contemporary education—and society in general—would no longer develop children into adults, but would keep them in their childish state. Stiegler’s critique is explicitly inspired by Enlightenment ideals, characterized by a positive notion of maturity and a negative notion of childhood and immaturity. Infantilization is for Stiegler therefore immediately a negative development. However, Stiegler’s works also contain a positive understanding of childhood and of the extension of childish characteristics into adulthood. The main thesis of this article is that this results in an unresolved tension in Stiegler’s work. I therefore propose a notion of infantilization not as solely negative, but as fundamentally ambivalent and risky. The continuation of childhood into maturity is necessary for the life of the mind, yet it can also foreclose maturity altogether. I use this new notion of infantilization to correct some of Stiegler’s radically conservative views on education and on the care for the new generations.

中文翻译：

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未成熟的成人和玩耍的孩子：论伯纳德·斯蒂格勒对婴儿化的批判

本文评估了伯纳德·斯蒂格勒 (Bernard Stiegler) 对婴儿化的批判。当代教育——以及整个社会——不再把孩子培养成成年人，而是让他们保持幼稚状态。斯蒂格勒的批评明确地受到启蒙运动理想的启发，其特点是成熟的积极观念和童年和不成熟的消极观念。因此，婴儿化对斯蒂格勒来说是一个负面的发展。然而，斯蒂格勒的作品也包含对童年的积极理解，以及对幼稚特征延伸到成年的积极理解。本文的主要论点是，这导致了斯蒂格勒作品中未解决的紧张局势。因此，我提出了一个婴儿化的概念，它不仅是消极的，而且是从根本上矛盾和冒险的。童年到成熟的延续对于心灵的生活是必要的，但它也可以完全排除成熟。我使用这种婴儿化的新概念来纠正斯蒂格勒关于教育和照顾新一代的一些激进保守的观点。