Education, formative experience and dialectic thinking in Theodor W. Adorno

Abstract

In the 18th century, Kant evaluated that his historical period was not a time of enlightenment, but rather minority, because of man's inability to use his own understanding. Adorno updated this problem, interpreting the minority in our presente in terms of loss of experience. Men are no longer apt to experience, because the technical and economic apparatus prevents the clarification and awareness of reality. From this diagnosis, The aim of this article is to investigate Adorno's educational thought in its possibilities of emancipation. In our point of view, the role of education, in the thoughts of the Frankfurtian, is to recover the critical autonomy of individuals, through dialectical thinking, to rebuild the damaged experience.