On Paulo Freire’s Philosophy of Praxis and the Foundations of Liberation Education

Abstract

This essay examines the ontological and epistemological foundations of Paulo Freire’s philosophy of praxis and critiques the structure of his argument. It outlines a more consistent historicist interpretation of liberation education that retains the liberatory power of modernism and its critique of dehumanization, recognizes the malleability and contradictions of identity, embraces epistemic uncertainties and the varieties of reason in knowledge, and respects the plural conceptions of the good which can shape moral and political life. Finally, the essay argues that this understanding of liberation education requires an ethics grounded in militant nonviolence.