O (Neo)pragmatismo como Eixo (Des)estruturante da Educação Contemporânea

Abstract

The present thesis looks into pragmatic philosophy and its historical ability for subsistence in the field of education. After some years of decline, pragmatism has reemerged in the form of neopragmatism, adjusted to a new context and imposing its principles upon contemporary education. The World Bank has been of crucial importance in the establishment of a new educational model, destined especially for the poor or “developing” countries. We analyzed the notion of society which underlies the political philosophy of John Dewey (1859-1952), an American Democrat and intellectual and perhaps the most influential pragmatic philosopher in education. We provide a critical analysis of his commitment to liberal democracy as well as his role as an influential intellectual in his country and elsewhere. Likewise, we examine the notion of society held by Richard Rorty (1931), the main advocate and driving force of the reemergence of pragmatism. In his redefinition of the phenomenon, Rorty attributes post-modern characteristics to pragmatism and questions the philosophical debate from Plato to Hegel, along with Marxism and analytical philosophy, which he considers to be philosophical systems dominated by metaphysics. In his antitheoretical and antiphilosophical outlook, Rorty proposes to hold creative conversations in which intersubjective relationships generate new words capable of solving everyday problems through enhanced use of language games suitable for each situation. Rorty believes that the improvement of society, for which he takes North American democracy as a model, requires the use of language games as a way of justifying beliefs, but not the purpose of reaching truth. Thus, to this neopragmatic thinker, social change should no longer rely on the great narratives, such as Marxism, which he thinks has lost its historical relevance. In contrast to the (neo)pragmatic approach and under the guidance of Marx and his followers, we see the presence of (neo)pragmatism as part of today’s capital crisis and urgent need to deal with humanity’s huge problems―problems generated by capital itself. Since (neo)pragmatism emerged in concert with the establishment of the United States, it has always been an essential support of the American, conservative way of life. Thus, we offer a critique of (neo)pragmatism through the ontology of the social being and considering work as a central ontological category of human life and essential element of human emancipation.