Freedom and learning as a thirst for life: a “dialogue” with Raffaele Laporta

Abstract

What remains of Raffaele Laporta’s thought and work today?
Almost twenty years after the death of the educator from Pescara, his name has fallen into oblivion and remains virtually unknown among the younger generations of those studying pedagogy. After only a few years, his reflections and theoretical-operational intuitions seem distant, if not forgotten. Even his most important works and his masterly text L’assoluto pedagogico (1996) are hardly ever cited. This article focuses on the link between education, freedom and learning, within the framework of a reflection situated at the crossroads where pedagogy and biology meet. It aims to present Laporta’s thought in a new light, and to investigate some fundamental issues that characterize the most exquisitely theoretical, epistemological, formal side of Italian secular-progressive pedagogy; a further objective is to respond to issues regarding current pedagogical knowledge and its most pressing educational challenges.