Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658), predecessor of lifelong education and arbiter of good taste

Abstract

Nearly all studies conducted to date on the work of the Spanish moralist Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658) are either literary or philosophical, so that they have hardly analyzed its educational dimension. In order to present Gracian's pedagogical contributions in a clear way, this paper takes as a reference five key principles of the educational trend known as "lifelong education", i.e. the pursuit of ongoing education, self-fulfilment, vitalisation of education, harmonious coexistence, and learning to learn. After describing Gracian's contributions to these issues, he appears as a predecessor of lifelong education. It is then shown that his conception of good taste is not only aesthetic, but also and above all pedagogical due to the decisive role it plays in the instruction of the incomplete subject who ends up becoming a person that has achieved the full development of his individuality.