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M. R. Anastacio
Without this ontological and epistemological clarity, without the understanding of the logical relations interpenetrating the constitutive dimensions of life, be it physical, biological,
social, political, cultural and spiritual, it is difficult to work on the proposed theme, Transdisciplinarity and Education. This is because the ontological explanations present epistemological ramifications and bring with them a set of procedures and strategies in which a
certain type of reasoning, logic, world understanding and a vision of how reality is manifested predominates. Thus, any current system of thought affects all these dimensions, the
practice arising from this applied logic, as well as the resulting political and social vision.
In this way, it becomes easier to understand that transdisciplinary thinking, nourished by the
complexity present in the different manifestations of life, connects ontology, epistemology
and methodology. (Moraes 2012, page 77)
When speaking of ontology, it is important to make explicit that the conception
of ontology adopted here is based on contemporary ontology. The word ontology,
of Greek origin, is formed by the terms ontos (to be) and logos (study) and means
“study of being”. Ontology is considered as a part of philosophy that studies the
reality, the existence and the nature of the being, also known as the science of the
“signification of the being as being” in its fundamental relations.
In the book Between us: essays on alterity, Lévinas (2004) retakes the problem
of ontology by philosophy, remembering that until then it was forgotten. In criticizing philosophical literature for oblivion, the thinker approaches the term in its
contemporary version. In this version, the understanding breathes again the air of its
source, which resides in the dialogues of Plato and in the metaphysics of Aristotle
and confers the credits of the contemporary approach of the ontology to Husserl and
Heidegger, when they conceive the possibility of the contingency and the feasibility,
which presupposes the understanding of being not only by the intellectual attitude,
but by the involvement of all human behavior. Ontology is the whole man in his
needs, his affections, his science, his social life and his work.
For Lévinas (2004), the main contribution of the new ontology, or contemporary
ontology, appears in its opposition to classical intellectualism, recognizing that:
To understand the instrument is not to see it, but to handle it; to understand our situation in
the real is not to define it, but it is in an affective disposition; to understand being is to exist.
All this is indicating, it seems, a rupture with the theoretical structure of Western thought.
To think is no longer to contemplate, but to engage, to be encompassed in what one thinks,
to be on board - a dramatic event of being-in-the-world. (Lévinas 2004, 23)
Ontology as a form of access to truth in the transdisciplinary conception, indicates that the teaching act needs to be deeply understood by the being which is the
teacher. Not only in terms of apprehension of knowledge, but of a being who acts
in the world with vision and concrete attitudes in tune with the presuppositions of
transdisciplinarity.
It seems relevant not only to critically reflect on the context of global and local
systemic socio-environmental problems and their impacts on education, but also to
observe the conditions and the locus of human beings that make up any and all social
systems in their multidimensional aspects. And in this sphere, construct solutions
so that education, from the attention to the process of development of the “inner
potency” of individuals, can effectively contribute to the transition process in which
M. R. Anastacio
Without this ontological and epistemological clarity, without the understanding of the logical relations interpenetrating the constitutive dimensions of life, be it physical, biological,
social, political, cultural and spiritual, it is difficult to work on the proposed theme, Transdisciplinarity and Education. This is because the ontological explanations present epistemological ramifications and bring with them a set of procedures and strategies in which a
certain type of reasoning, logic, world understanding and a vision of how reality is manifested predominates. Thus, any current system of thought affects all these dimensions, the
practice arising from this applied logic, as well as the resulting political and social vision.
In this way, it becomes easier to understand that transdisciplinary thinking, nourished by the
complexity present in the different manifestations of life, connects ontology, epistemology
and methodology. (Moraes 2012, page 77)
When speaking of ontology, it is important to make explicit that the conception
of ontology adopted here is based on contemporary ontology. The word ontology,
of Greek origin, is formed by the terms ontos (to be) and logos (study) and means
“study of being”. Ontology is considered as a part of philosophy that studies the
reality, the existence and the nature of the being, also known as the science of the
“signification of the being as being” in its fundamental relations.
In the book Between us: essays on alterity, Lévinas (2004) retakes the problem
of ontology by philosophy, remembering that until then it was forgotten. In criticizing philosophical literature for oblivion, the thinker approaches the term in its
contemporary version. In this version, the understanding breathes again the air of its
source, which resides in the dialogues of Plato and in the metaphysics of Aristotle
and confers the credits of the contemporary approach of the ontology to Husserl and
Heidegger, when they conceive the possibility of the contingency and the feasibility,
which presupposes the understanding of being not only by the intellectual attitude,
but by the involvement of all human behavior. Ontology is the whole man in his
needs, his affections, his science, his social life and his work.
For Lévinas (2004), the main contribution of the new ontology, or contemporary
ontology, appears in its opposition to classical intellectualism, recognizing that:
To understand the instrument is not to see it, but to handle it; to understand our situation in
the real is not to define it, but it is in an affective disposition; to understand being is to exist.
All this is indicating, it seems, a rupture with the theoretical structure of Western thought.
To think is no longer to contemplate, but to engage, to be encompassed in what one thinks,
to be on board - a dramatic event of being-in-the-world. (Lévinas 2004, 23)
Ontology as a form of access to truth in the transdisciplinary conception, indicates that the teaching act needs to be deeply understood by the being which is the
teacher. Not only in terms of apprehension of knowledge, but of a being who acts
in the world with vision and concrete attitudes in tune with the presuppositions of
transdisciplinarity.
It seems relevant not only to critically reflect on the context of global and local
systemic socio-environmental problems and their impacts on education, but also to
observe the conditions and the locus of human beings that make up any and all social
systems in their multidimensional aspects. And in this sphere, construct solutions
so that education, from the attention to the process of development of the “inner
potency” of individuals, can effectively contribute to the transition process in which