There is a profound difference between instruction and education — a distinction foundational to classical and humanist philosophy, yet often forgotten in contemporary discourse. Instruction is oriented toward transmission: it fills the learner with facts, techniques, and skills. It operates within a framework of competence and efficiency, oriented toward outcomes that can be measured and optimised. It is the domain of training and know-how.
Education, by contrast, does not merely fill — it forms. Etymologically, educare means “to draw out” or “to lead forth.” It aims not to produce skills, but to cultivate the character, judgment, and orientation of the person. Instruction informs the hand; education transforms the soul. This classical distinction — found in Plato, Aristotle, and revived in thinkers like Newman, MacIntyre, and Arendt — grounds the core idea that virtue is not taught like geometry. It must be practiced, formed, and oriented toward an understanding of what it means to live well.
The same distinction holds between choice and decision — a differentiation with enormous ethical and political implications.
Choice is a function of knowledge. It involves the evaluation of predefined options, often reducible to cost-benefit analysis or risk management. It belongs to the realm of instrumental rationality, a logic of optimisation. When we choose, we are selecting between known paths — a better price, a shorter route, a stronger return.
Decision, by contrast, comes from the Latin decidere, meaning “to cut off.” It is not merely a selection among options, but a moral act of commitment — often taken in conditions of uncertainty, ambiguity, and irreversibility. True decisions arise when the available knowledge is insufficient — when the choice is not clear, and yet one must act.
We can think about a map and a compass:
A map tells you what is— the layout, the possibilities. It enables optimisation.
A compass tells you where to go— even if the terrain is unmapped. It orients you toward the good — what ought to be.
Now enter AI.
Artificial intelligence can be many things — but one thing it will never be is wise. It excels at instruction, not education.
The danger is not that AI will replace our minds — it is that it will de-skill our souls. When systems give us ever-better options, with ever-greater speed and personalised precision, we lose the habit — and eventually the capacity — to decide what truly matters. AI teaches choice, but it removes the necessity of forming a compass.
We risk raising a generation of leaders — and citizens — who can compare everything but commit to nothing. Who can optimise without knowing what for. Who have lost the courage to decide — because they no longer know who they are, what is worthy, or what kind of world they are trying to bring into being.
And this is the real crisis: not of intelligence, but of formation.
#leadership #phronesis #wisdom #transformation
Based on: Stefano Zamagni, Le Sfide della DSC