Indeed, to admit of dehumanization as an historical vocation would lead either to cynicism or total despair. This distortion occurs within history but it is not an historical vocation. It is thwarted by injustice, exploitation, oppression, and the violence of the oppressors it is affirmed by the yearning of the oppressed for freedom and justice, and by their struggle to recover their lost humanity.ĭehumanization, which marks not only those whose humanity has been stolen, but also (though in a different way) those who have stolen it, is a distortion of the vocation of becoming more fully human. This vocation is constantly negated, yet it is affirmed by that very negation. Within history, in concrete, objective contexts, both humanization and dehumanization are possibilities for a person as an uncompleted being conscious of their incompletion.īut while both humanization and dehumanization are real alternatives, only the first is the people's vocation. And as an individual perceives the extent of dehumanization, he or she may ask if humanization is a viable possibility. (1) Concern for humanization leads at once to the recognition of dehumanization, not only as an ontological possibility but as an historical reality. While the problem of humanization has always, from an axiological point of view, been humankind's central problem, it now takes on the character of an inescapable concern. This reading is from: PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED by Paulo Freire. Philosophy of Education - Chapter 1: Pedagogy of the Oppressed PAULO FREIRE: CHAPTER 1 OF PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED

Freire pedagogy