ABSTRACT:
This paper explores the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers - especially Condorcet and Rousseau - as to relations between the civilizing process, freedom, equality and democratization of knowledge. According to Condorcet, the social and political role of education is lead by the link established by these thinkers between the realization of the "community of the free and equal" and universal appropriation of knowledge. Hence his concern to create conditions to make instruction a tool for power democratization, avoiding the monopoly of recruitment, which is responsible for the fossilization of doctrinal currents and stratification of corporate privileges. The thought of Rousseau, his "passive" and pessimistic elements are emphasized to show the other side of this issue. And maybe help us think about these matters in our times, when one can observe "the defeat and gradual disappearance of more cooperative corporate models in favor of the consolidation of conflictive aggregates where the strongest individuals organize everything as best suit them".
Keywords:
Enlightenment; Education; Democracy; Equality; Freedom; Rousseau; Condorcet