The pedagogical meaning of finitude From an aestethic of existence to an aesthetic of education

Abstract

The article aims to reflect on possible meanings and implications of finitude in educational contexts. First of all, it explores the experience of finitude in the contemporary socio-cultural milieu characterized by a tendency to remove the main limits of human condition. This attitude generates widespread learning processes where subjects not relate with themselves’ and others’ limits. We assist, hence, to a growing general vulnerability and discomfort where pedagogical work is particularly difficult. Starting from this scenario the article asserts the importance of recovering the meaning and value of limits in order to perform “good” educational practices, able to promote meaningful experiences. This perspective entails connecting an aesthetic of existence with an aesthetic of education on a plurality of levels and from different point of views. The comparison with the dimension of the end, is thus fundamental in order to accomplish one's life and experiment educational contexts. A crucial dimension that defines constraints and possibilities of subjects across educational systems.