Das Gemüt, Core of the Soul: Anthropological and Pedagogical Keys in Edith Stein's Thinking

• In Event: Relational and Ethical Dimensions of Pedagogy

Abstract

Could it be valid to make philosophy out of education? What is philosophy able to bring over to education? We are certain, following Edith Stein (1891-1942), that making philosophical reflections about human-being’s nature and about educational activity could help to transform its existencial situation. For this reason, the purpose of this work is to make evident how important it is to comprehend the meaning of the human person from its personal center: the core of the soul, from where feelings arise and where the deepest meaning of the person relies (in German, ”Gemüt"). That comprehension, we believe, is able to provide direction and quality to the act of educating as well as to rethink the teacher-student relationship.

Author

• Cecilia Giudice, UCA