Theology and Philosophy of Education 

Svobodová, Zuzana

 
ISSN 2788-1180    https://tape.academy             1 
 
Theology and Philosophy of Education       2022, vol. 1, no. 2, editorial, p. 1–2 
 
 
 
Editorial 
 
Freedom as an Aim of Education 
 
 
Zuzana Svobodová 
 
Dear readers of the journal Theology and Philosophy of Education, 
The title of this editorial shows what could be seen as a common topic for all of the articles 
published in this second issue. However, our journal for the theology of education and 
philosophy of education is too young to publish monothematic issues. On the contrary, for our 
authors, we want to offer the freest possible environment in which they can create and publish 
articles. This medium (in all meanings of the word) seeks to point out that freedom is not only 
an aim but also a way how to live humanely. We are not free in many aspects. We can see 
illnesses, wars, barriers, obstacles or impediments all around us. Nevertheless, or precisely 
because of this, we long for freedom, and we try to seek freedom. We hope, believe or know 
about the possibility of changing unfree situations and overcoming these barriers. In all epochs, 
real educators have been people who are helping others to find more freedom. For Christians, 
Jesus is the Educator, as, for example, Clement of Alexandria clearly described in his 
hermeneutics of the Biblical texts, regarding God as the one and only Teacher. In this 
perspective, we cannot use complete freedom in our everyday life here and now. However, we 
could and we should live as human beings, humanly. Living humanly means to live with 
openness to others, with friendship, love, acceptance, and not with violence. Again, real 
educators know about this openness necessary for the possibility of starting education. This 
openness is crucial for the existence of human society and participation in human culture. The 
word culture has its root in the Latin cultura (care). Cicero by translating the Greek words 
epimeleia peri tes psyches (ἐπιμέλεια περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς) with the Latin words cultura animi (care 
of the soul, care for the soul, “the culture of the mind” – Cicero 1872, 342) knew that this care 
(ἐπιμέλεια, epimeleia) was the unique experience of pupils or disciples with Socrates as a true 
philosopher at the agora in Athens (Cic. Tusc. 2.13): Socrates cared not for himself, but he 
cared for his soul (ψυχή) and for their souls, by searching for t/Truth (ἀλήθεια), and not only a 
probability, rightness, correctness (ὀρθότης) or actual facticity. Therefore, his education went 
over or behind the present unfree situation to freedom. The Latin word educatio has this in the 
prefix “e” from “ex” (from) in its root. The difference between the Latin verbs ducere and 
educere is tiny but essential in the aim and way of acting and behaving. Feeling more freedom 
is described by the second of the verbs; the experience of free human life was given by or 
through education. 
Therefore, an educated person can distinguish between the important and unimportant in his 
knowledge and his life, as David Rybák explains in the first article of this issue. The main goal  
 
https://tape.academy   DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7411392           2 
 
Editorial. Freedom as an Aim of Education 
 
of this article is to clarify the connection and unity of educational disciplines in the Platonic 
curriculum that one could see in the so-called allegory of the cave. This issue begins with this 
article because this return to Plato means, according to David Rybák, initiating the question of 
the meaning of education. This initium (beginning) was and still is (has been) a reason for 
establishing our journal. Education situated in an ethical context springing from the “face to 
face” relation, as a novel view outlined by Levinas, is described by James Mensch in the second 
article of this issue. How inspiration for education through reading could be the first medieval 
didactics, The Didascalicon, written by Hugh of St Victor, is explored by Rastislav Nemec in 
his article about reading as a creative process. There must be the ‘unspoken’ beyond all 
discussion between teacher and pupil and as such this ‘unspoken’ could and should be seen, or, 
in this case, better: listened. The cruciality of such mutual humble listening, especially 
important in musical education, but essential for all dialogues, is expressed by Michael Pinkas 
in his article Tempting of Speech in Music Education: Reflections on Thomas Mann’s Doktor 
Faustus. What we seek by longing for love is considered by Miriam Prokešová in her Outline 
of the Philosophical Concept of the Child and the “Child in us”, where she explains her own 
view on the child and childhood from seven perspectives which originate in her research and 
extensive study of various concepts of the child and childhood in literature and philosophy. In 
the last reviewed article of the presented issue, Mária Spišiaková reflects on death as a part of 
education at different levels in her article Why Death Should Be a Topic for Education.  
A short but dense translation from the work of the Czech philosopher of education Radim 
Palouš is offered to our respective readers as an invitation to TAPE, to bind and connect 
different perspectives of education. With wishes for open seeing and listening that have a 
possibility of becoming the intention of attention and bring us closer to freedom, 
 
Zuzana Svobodová 
 
References 
Clement from Alexandria. 1885. The Instructor. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Vol. II. Fathers 
of the Second Century. Transl. Alexander Roberts, D.D. and James Donaldson, LL.D. 
Ed. A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D. 
Cicero, M. Tullius. 1918. Tusculanae Disputationes. Ed. M. Pohlenz. Leipzig: Teubner. 
Cicero, M. Tullius. 1872. The Academic Questions: Treatise De Finibus and Tusculan 
Disputations of M.R. Cicero, with a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by 
Cicero. Transl. by C. D. Yonge. London: G. Bell and Daldy. 
 
PhDr. Zuzana Svobodová, Ph.D. 
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5151-056X 
Charles University 
Theology and Philosophy of Education 
editor in chief 
svobodova@tape.academy 


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