Transmitting transformation: considerations on the ethical meaning of philosophy and education

Abstract

Our aim in this paper is to investigate the possibility of rethinking the fundamental meaning of education beyond the intellectual dimension. Our proposal is to place in the foreground the ethical sense of human formation, that is, the possibility of formation and transformation of the existential attitude of each individual. For that, we brought to our aid the notion of philosophy as “spiritual exercise”, evidenced by Pierre Hadot. We investigate in detail the possible contributions of existentialism and stoicism to rethink philosophy and education from an ethical and not merely an intellectual sense. We seek to show that, far beyond the transmission of intellectual content, what is at stake in educational processes is the possibility of forming and transforming a unique existential trajectory.