Power of the logos, violence of the myth

Abstract

This attempt is made to analyze Gustavo Bueno's work in relation to pedagogical practice from a depersonalizing perspective, facilitating as neutral a judgment as possible regarding the scope and dimensions of his work.

Just as in the inexhaustible vitality of philosophizing, as well as in the very possibility of its teaching, the ego tends to relatively and provisionally dissolve, and common rationality makes its way into the immanence of formalized learning processes, a moment during which effective fulfillment is given to a concise and rare eternity soon buried beneath the noisy urgencies of everyday life.

It is understood that some of the most valuable aspects of Gustavo Bueno's thought are captured in his works Presocratic Metaphysics (1974) and The Myth of Culture (1996): they clarify the gestation of philosophical thought and dismantle the reductionisms that speak of the «passage from myth to logos» and of the nature-culture antagonism and its connections with teaching. Finally, it is argued that the projection of philosophical materialism will require rigorous study and application in public institutions to maintain its relevance and avoid ideological sectarianism. However, its impact appears precarious in the face of the vacuous relativism of identitarian postmodernism.