EDUCATION AND RESPONSIBILITY:

THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN ADORNO AND HANNAH ARENDT IN OVERCOMING BARBARISM

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on the essential role of philosophy in the educational field, highlighting its ethical, critical, and humanizing dimension in the face of historical experiences of degradation of the human condition, such as the atrocities perpetrated in Auschwitz. It starts from the premise that the absence of philosophical exercise—understood as the capacity to think, judge, and act autonomously—opens space for moral alienation and the repetition of totalitarian and violent behaviors. Thus, the study is theoretically grounded in the emancipatory philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno, for whom education must prevent the repetition of Auschwitz through the cultivation of self-criticism and moral sensitivity, and in Hannah Arendt, who emphasizes the importance of judgment and responsible action as ways to reaffirm human dignity in the common world. In this way, the article seeks to demonstrate that an education inspired by the philosophical thought of both authors can contribute to the formation of free, conscious subjects capable of resisting the dehumanizing forces that still threaten contemporary society.