Educação ou barbárie: a concepção de violência em T. W. Adorno

Abstract

Violence permeates our lives in different ways, both physical and psychological. And in a society where violence is increasingly present one must question the reasons that explain the person to practice the violence and/or barbarism. The objective of this work is to question the concept of violence to Adorno, relating it to the concepts of education and barbarism, and understanding the complex relationship between them. That’s because the author understands violence beside its consequences, trying to understand its causes. For Adorno the violence is constitutive of the man, since the process of civilization man has to give up of some desires and this consequently creates some aggressive behaviors. The thesis discusses how education can be a tool that enables the individual to control the aggressive impulses into socially accepted activities, such as help in the sublimation capacity of the person. Thus the concept of violence can not be decontextualized, because it arises of this society that prioritizes the logic of the capitalist mode of production. Education emerges as the possibility of to guarantee a society that does not become pure barbarism, but an expectation of formation of autonomous individuals, emancipated, able to consider on the human condition. To realize a study of the concept of violence to Adorno was carried out a literature research whose main references were authors of the Frankfurt School, as Adorno, Horkheimer and Marcuse, among other authors that are the basis for the study of them, such as Marx, Freud and Kant. It is important to define who is the individual this society, so to understand what elements constitute their subjectivity, and so finally understand how violence permeates our lives. Therefore, this text emphasizes the importance of education as a possibility against violence and barbarism, but an education committed to the humanization of the individual. Key words: violence, barbarism, education