Abstract
The general subject of this essay is the question, what is philosophy of education? Its specific purpose is to confront what may be considered a “schooled conception” of education. According to this conception, education would be basically the exercise of a profession in which the teacher should teach something to the student(s). By so conceiving it, it philosophy of education would merely mediate the debate between pedagogical theories whose purpose is to guide teaching practice. Therefore, philosophy of education itself would not be directly concerned with education as a philosophical problem. This essay, in turn, aims to argue for another point of view. Philosophy of education should be understood as philosophy rather than being reduced to a mediator in a debate among other theories. Therefore, it is essential to rescue what typically philosophical activity and then define what philosophy of education should be. As a result, philosophy of education can resume its position to elaborate a philosophical conception of education and, finally, to do justice to its condition of philosophy. Finally, this essay will conceive education as a universal experience through which human beings seek to develop the possibilities of their humanity. And the fundamental aspect of this experience is the endless transformation of the very being of the person who performs the experience, in order to establish their singularity. Phenomenological hermeneutics, taken from Heidegger’s and Gadamer’s point of view, is the method by which this essay will accomplish its purpose.
Philosophy; Education; Experience; Transformation; Singularity