AN ONTOLOGICAL NOTION OF LEARNING INSPIRED BY THE PHILOSOPHY OF HANNAH ARENDT: THE MIRACLE OF NATALITY
JAMES M. MAGRINIABSTRACT. From an ontological perspective, there is something valuable that we can learn about learning from Arendt’s formal philosophy of education, on the one hand, and her ontological-phenomenological elucidation of “action” and the “space of appearance” on the other. Since Arendt establishes the hard and fast distinction between private and public realms, synthesizing her divergent views concerning the education of children and the learning that occurs among adults appears problematic. In addition to the phenomenological analysis of the ontological essence of “learning” in Arendt, I attempt a rapprochement between the private and public, the two seemingly irreconcilable realms of the human condition. pp. 60–92
Keywords: Arendt, education, curriculum, learning, phenomenology, ontology, hermeneutics