Il pathos che educa. Contributo a una pedagogia della finitudine

In all human civilizations, pain and suffering, albeit with all their negative implications, mainly for their being tied to death, have always been seen – more or less implicitly – as educational experiences capable of enhancing human development within a situation of limit and “end” of existence (Mantegazza, 2002). Actually, pain and suffering modify the human being both in their physical and mental dimension and lead to their transformation through a hermeneutical process of understanding and interpreting. This process helps the human being understand not only the meanings of their existence as individuals and personality but also their relationship with the world around and with others. The realization of this potential is at the very base of many ancient and modern pedagogies (Garelli, 2001). The power of modification/transformation and the educational potential of suffering – a central concept, for example, in the theories of philosopher and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl [1905-1997] – was realized by Greek civilization. The Greeks understood the universality of the experience of human suffering and gave it an essential role within their paideia, that is to say, the ethical, religious and educational system the training of their younger generations was based on. Pathos is the Greek term which sums up the jumble of emotions and feelings (pain, evil, death, suffering, joy, and so on) which arise from experiences lived by human beings both as individuals, social beings and members of a species. These emotions and feelings, which are usually investigated by specific pedagogies by acting as soul and body techniques, often seem to remain inexplicable in the eyes of rational thought. Pathos refers to something which remains in the darkness and seems to be impenetrable to eyes of reason. In this article, we will highlight, through a hermeneutical research approach, how pathos represents the ethical and educational core of the concept of human finitude. We will use this core to sketch the outline of an active nihilistic pedagogy of finitude. We aim to show how this pedagogy makes sense through the challenge to death, pain, and suffering, which reveals the very meaning of human life before its extreme limits.