Dialogue
Buber's philosophy of education revisited
pp. 49-58
in: Paul Smeyers (ed), International handbook of philosophy of education, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
Martin Buber not only wrote about education but was an educator himself. According to Ernst Simon, his philosophical thought does not aim to be constrained on how to educate, but rather a life process Buber lived, according to his own thought, including his work as a scholar in Germany and Israel, but also as an adult educator, text translator, and political figure until his death.We will try to show that the Dialogic perspective is still valid analyzing the Buberian phrases "pointing the way' and "prophetic mission' in order to understand the Dialogic perspective of Buber's thought on education. Buber's understanding of traditions does not separate religious from cultural or even atheistic since the standpoints of this dialogic thought are the ethical and the political. Buber's thought might be helpful to understand the dialogue between traditions in a very interconnected World, just as it could be of great use for particular educators in any specific surrounding when trying to connect with others and their particular ways of understanding the World. In this sense, Martin Buber's approach to education might not only be of use but imperative for the twenty-first century.
