Epistemologia ed ethos della complessità e il futuro della scuola

Abstract

In his most recent intervention on educational matters – the volume with the French Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer – Edgar Morin returned to the theme of what profile the school must have in order to respond to the challenges of our times. In the present contribution, I will spotlight the enduring interest of the French thinker in the question of the school: this is arguably a trait that differentiates him from other trends of contemporary educational theory. Indeed, many representatives of the latter strat from a diagnosis of the contemporary epistemological and ethical revolution in many respects analogous to Morin’s; however, they come to the conclusion that the school device is inevitably outdated, insofar as it is linked with a view of knowledge that should be overcome. In contrast, according to the reading here proposed, Morin endeavours to reconstruct that device rather than to dismantle it. In the present paper this quality of ‘difference’ of Morin will be examined, on the one hand, by tracing it back to the French tradition of reflection about the school, of which Morin is an (innovative) heir; and, on the other, by highlighting his elaboration of an idea of the school as a centre advancing a culture of complexity.