This article is an attempt to reconstruct Leszek Kołakowski’s vision of education based on the study of his own notions and ideas. According to Kołakowski, any meaning which can be attributed to human life and activities is not a feature inherent in human beings but can only be granted by themselves. The process of sense creation is irremovable from culture. Kołakowski calls this process myth creation, which is one of the key concepts he employs. He considers education as an introduction to myth while the lack of an external frame of reference renders education “identical with indoctrination”. Therefore the only way to preserve the apprentice’s autonomy is to refer to another category of Kołakowski’s, which is inconsistency. Placing hope for the apprentice’s autonomy in the teacher’s inconsistency and, in consequence, in the ineffectiveness of education, is not very reassuring. Kołakowski’s vision of education demonstrates that scepticism is not capable (or even willing) of offering us anything more than that.
The aim of this article is to determine the status of philosophy of education among the other philosophical disciplines and to consider its place within the framework of pedagogical sciences. The relationship between pedagogy and philosophy has been analysed with emphasis on the conditions to be met by philosophy that it could be useful as an instrument helping in reflection on education. The article also discusses the way in which could be useful. Successively, the question in posed on how data obtained during the pedagogical reflection can influence philosophy itself. In conclusion, referring to the achievements of Alasdair MacIntyre, an attempt to draw philosophical procedures allowing to assess given pedagogical concepts is presented.
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