Shopenhauer e a educação

Abstract

This thesis brings results of an investigation of the idea of education present in the work of Arthur Schopenhauer. Man is educated, naturally or artificially, at all times of his life. The natural education, to which the author attributes most importance, relates to that knowledge of affection, a stage that precedes intellectual knowledge. The educational process then begins with an (unconscious) act of a person’s Will, who aims one’s attention to something external to oneself. Schopenhauer's philosophy has a pessimistic line of thinking because it considers that living is to be doomed to suffering. Education, therefore, would not have the scope to free human being from suffering, but through a refined intellectual education, it would provide means to conduct one’s practical life. Not only it would provide practical knowledge, but also, the limits of where humans are bound, due to their non-freedom. An education from a pessimistic view rips off of the human being a pretense superiority in relation to other existing creatures. Thus, a space for questions about the relationship between education and moral improvement of the human being is created.