Solitude and selflessness and the cultivation of humanity in liberal and religious education

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper attempts to analyse the role of solitude and selflessness in promoting consideration for the person and the possibilities offered by liberal and religious education in this regard. The empirical point of departure is the Polish system of public education, where liberal education takes the form of general education while religious education is pursued as catechesis. The theoretical grounding for the characterisation of selflessness as the goal of education and solitude as its method are provided by Roman Ingarden’s phenomenological conception of personal and moral values and Erasmus of Rotterdam’s Christian humanism. I propose that firstly, liberal education may provide significant aid to religious education for the cultivation of selflessness; secondly, that solitude in normal conditions may be a unifying factor for liberal and religious education; thirdly, that selflessness and solitude, being two complementary parts of consideration for the person, constitute the test of good education understood as the cultivation of humanity.