Education as the Way of Discerning the Passages to Freedom: A Hermeneutics of Promise and Temptation in Dante’s Divine Comedy

general courses

Remote learning

The invaluable treasure of understanding a human being as a free being within the horizon of responsibility is, at the same time, a profound obligation toward the infinite quest for a hermeneutic eye and ear in order to be able to discern our passages to freedom. Dante’s harsh criticism of those who in their mission of proclaiming the reigning of God (Βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ) were more concerned with their own good than representing the personified source of their vocation is as relevant today in a world shaken by the global pandemic as it was in Dante’s lifetime.

To commemorate the seventh century of the death of Dante Alighieri, we will read his Divine Comedy. Heidegger reminds us that “we honor a thinker when we think.” We can add, in the spirit of Hannah Arendt, that “Heidegger never thinks of something, he thinks something.” Our task is to think our own passages to freedom and nurture our personal sovereignty in responding to the essential call to be a human being in the world. A hermeneutic reading of the Divine Comedy cannot be reduced to an attempt to reconstruct the meaning of the text, yet alone the intention of the author (mens auctoris). Still, it invites us or rather takes us on our own existential-hermeneutic journey to freedom. Interpretation is not an undertaking toward the discovery of some hidden meaning but a mode of being a human being, which belongs to life’s own basic movements. Understanding ourselves as the pilgrims (status viatoris), and thus participants in a hermeneutic con-versation, we experience our hermeneutic con-version, and reinterpret our attachment to the things of this world within the true horizon of ultimate philosophical and theological questions. Asking them, we find ourselves, as existentia hermeneutica, in permanent wonderment on the path of the belonging together of Beauty, Truth, and Being.

Bibliography:

Christine O’Connell Baur, Dante’s Hermeneutics of Salvation: Passages to Freedom in The Divine Comedy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007).

Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, http://en.wikisource.org.

Pope Francis, Splendor of Life Eternal, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco-lettera-ap_20210325_centenario-dante.html.

Mario J. Valdés, Cultural Hermeneutics: Essays after Unamuno and Ricoeur (, 2016).

Andrzej Wierciński, Hermeneutics of Education: Exploring and Experiencing the Unpredictability of Education (Zurich: LIT, 2019).

Learning outcomes

Knowledge:

o the student is familiar with new literature on the literature as indicated in the bibliography

o is familiar with the philosophy of education

o knows the state of research in the hermeneutics of education and is able to design an innovative research project

Skills:

o can identify philosophical aspects of education

o can address the importance of feelings (curiosity, patience, courage, uncertainty, self-esteem) and validates them in the process of learning

o has skills in presenting aspects of philosophical hermeneutics in discussing issues in contemporary education in an international setting

o can effectively communicate with other scholars in hermeneutic philosophy and education

o as a creative and insightful student, shows depth in thinking and in the elaborating of original and novel ideas

Social competences:

o appreciates the need to learn to understand one’s life

o can set measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals and ways to achieve them in the context of academic, professional, and social activity

o sees the need for dialogue between different academic disciplines and schools of thought

Assessment criteria:

Students must attend classes, actively participate in discussions, and write a ca. 2500 words research paper. The grade will be based on the paper at 50%. Students should clear their topic with the instructor before writing. The final revised paper is due on Friday, December 24, 2021. Attendance / Active in-class participation (50%). Along with the final paper, students are required to submit a detailed report about their attendance and self-evaluation of their activity in the class.