Filosofía y Educación: encuentros, desencuentros, senderos

Abstract

The article analyzes how philosophy and education are intertwined in their historical development, provoking convergences, divergences, paths. Firstly, the original relationship between philosophy and education is addressed, as originated in the Greek world, the most expressive example of which is Plato's philosophical investigation, which constituted a metaphysical justification, guiding education towards a progressive rational elucidation. Metaphysics offers a theoretical configuration that indicates the ends of education. Next, the mode of relationship established between philosophy and education in modernity is exposed, when the development of empirical knowledge and experimental science fundamentally alter the nature of this relationship, causing the loss of legitimacy of philosophical knowledge that aimed at a vision of unity of being and reality, from which educational categories would be deduced. To the extent that education is dominated by the scientific method, which frames human beings in quantifiable categories, there is a retreat from philosophy. Thirdly, taking as reference the inevitable consideration of the historical changes that have occurred in thought and the critique of totalizing reason, we point at another articulation between philosophy and education, according to which philosophy can be called upon to contribute through the critical analysis of how concepts are thought out, directing the educational process. This is exemplified in the critical discussion regarding the concept of Bildung (Reichenbach, 2003), through the recognition of its subversive character that projects training as self- education. The article concludes that philosophy, in an open dialogue with education, interprets questions of training precisely where other areas of knowledge no longer find answers, how certain paths were paved, how concepts were established and what their limits were.