Problematization of Meaning: Subjective-Practical Possibilities for Freedom/Liberation in Jan Patočka and Paulo Freire

Abstract

This article will address the issue of problematization of meaning and its subjective-practical possibilities for freedom/liberation in Jan Patočka and Paulo Freire. In this regard, I will specifically analyze Freire's Pedagogy of the oppressed and Patočka's Heretic essays in philosophy of history. Each in their own way, these authors will build important conceptualizations for the possibility of a freer and more humane political society, whether through what I have called a strong ontology in Patočka or through a strong praxis in Freire. Both authors will seek a constant freedom/liberation that is always questioning the meaning, making unfeasible objectifying practices that hinder the liberating process itself in the constitution of humanity.

Keywords: problematization of meaning, freedom, liberation, strong ontology, strong praxis