Educação e libertação : conscientização e práxis de libertação a partir de Enrique Dussel e Paulo Freire

Abstract

This work aims to investigate the function of education within the theoretical architecture proposed by the philosopher Enrique Dussel in dialogue with Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of Liberation. We will start from Dussel's first works to his most recent production, with the central work Ethics of Liberation: in the age of globalization and exclusion. Dussel's central concern in his ethical writings is, ultimately, to justify the struggle of the excluded (the victims of the current system) for the recognition of their rights. The author seeks to theoretically base the liberating praxis on the basis of victimized subjects, prevented from developing their lives with dignity; and for this he resorts to an ethics of principles, divided into complementary moments, which culminate in the praxis of liberation. In this way, we will investigate the role of education in this liberation project, and how Dussel absorbs the ideas of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. We will build our investigative itinerary in order to support that the notion of conscientization – theorized by Freire – is a central part of Dussel's ethics, consisting of the moment where theory and practice are articulated. Finally, we wish to defend that education (understood as awareness) is not only a central point of the Ethics of Liberation, but also carries a double dialectical composition with regard to the concept of praxis: education as a pedagogical act is praxis and contribution to praxis.