A Razão no Diferendo. Um Estudo Qualitativo sobre o Ensino da Filosofia em Portugal

Abstract

The profound shock to the Enlightenment idea of reason in the 20th century raises the question of the possibility of philosophical education, whose axis is the use of reason. The teaching of philosophy could be regarded as a place where the use of reason takes place or where this is tried. In this context, a qualitative empirical perspective is developed on the situation of philosophical education in philosophy classes. After a theoretical reflection about the European crisis of reason and the related crises in education and in particular in philosophical education, there follows a discussion dealing with the question of an empirical approach to the idea of reason. Subsequently, some results from a qualitative study on the teaching of philosophy in Portugal will be presented, which embrace not only the teaching itself, but also the perceptions of the teachers and the students. Based on this, some perspectives of an idea of reason are introduced which can be fruitful not only for philosophical education but also for education in general in a postmodern context.