Dialogue and formative experience in the perspective of philosophical hermeneutics

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the pedagogical effectiveness of a hermeneutic praxis, taking as reference the Philosophical Hermeneutics of the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer, in facing the problem of the weakening of dialogical action in present-day education. The growing inability to dialogue is leading contemporary society to a kind of monologue or a disguised dialogue that does not meet the requirements of a living dialogue, contributing to the deconstruction of human interactions, of social values, and the impoverishment of the formative experience of individuals. Strongly influenced by a tendency that privileges technical-instrumental action over dialogical rationality, present-day education has negatively interfered in the formation of human relations, generating an increasing inability to develop a "lively dialogue" and understanding between individuals. In confrontation with this instrumentalizing tendency of rationality, we counterpose and defend the pedagogical effectiveness of a hermeneutic praxis that takes dialogue while formative experience as its guiding principle. The conclusion points out that an integral formation of the human being demands, besides the development of technical education, the formation towards dialog and a constant hermeneutic exercise in education.