O conceito de perfectibilidade na Pedagogia de Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Abstract

On the current research, it is intended to enlarge the theme related to the concept of perfectibility on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Pedagogy. Beyond the epistemological meanings on the concept of perfectibility, the attempt was identifying what the author conceives in relation to the human capacity of improving himself, in his pedagogical project: Emile, or On Education (1762). The concept of perfectibility was first discussed in his Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men (1754). There, the first ambiguous and ambivalent meanings of perfectibility or human corruption emerged. Through a hermeneutical reading, we made a discussion about the nexus between these two works in relation to the proposed theme. The quest which guided the direction of the investigative process fell upon the following general question: in what consists perfectibility as a concept of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s pedagogy? The investigative process started from the hypothesis that the conception of perfectibility according to Rousseau has it is origin on the transition of “man" to the process of human socialization. It was identified that the core of Rousseau’s thinking about human formation lies on human's capacity of being social, in other words, moral education and politics. In this meaning, as a result of the research, it was shown that through the comprehension of the ambivalent, universal and undetermined specificity, it is possible to understand the concept, and further than that, we can find viability for the incorporated politics and education, both as indispensable processes for the ideal human formation: as pedagogical ideas going on the direction of perfectibility.