The educational daemon

• Main Author: Alessandro Versace
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Bologna 2016-12-01
• Series: Encyclopaideia
• Subjects: Daimon; Educazione; Pedagogia; Fenomenologia
• Online Access: https://encp.unibo.it/article/view/6458

James Hillman uses the myth of Er by Plato to introduce the theory of the daemon, something that exists in each of us and that refers to concepts such as the calling, the self-image, the alignment that define us as unique human beings. The personality of every human being is marked by a "destiny" that pushes towards the authenticity of existence towards the so-called Me. The educational process is designed according to taking-form approach to deliver the man his own self-actualization. So the daemon becomes an educational daemon: it means that it expresses those vocational forms which are as a sort of peak experience that brings our deepest essence out. At a pedagogical critic framework, it implies the creation of professional /personal identity that goes beyond those mixed-up self-referential pedagogies of low quality, offering estrangement instead of clear concepts, theoretical poverty rather than conceptual growth, bluffs instead of substance.