Learning and Authentic Relations : An Essay in the Philosophy of Education

The self-reflective process of hermeneutics through which experience is grasped and something is learned can be viewed from two identical viewpoints. Firstly, as 'total attention' in the sense in which it is used in psychotherapy and Gestalt psychology and secondly as an explication of a philosophical theory of truth.In the first case, the quality of understanding is direcdy related to the quality of the attention involved in the interaction e. g. painting, music, dialogues. In the second case, using Heidegger's phenomenological theory of truth as disclosure of being, learning is an authentic relation between the receiver of the message and the message itself. This essay attempts to connect the phenomenon of attention with a theory of truth as a basis fot an authentic philosophy of education.