ON THE PEDAGOGY OF NO AND OF THE DREAMER’S “COGITO” IN GASTON BACHELARD: THINKING OF AN EDUCATION FOR THE IMAGINATION

Abstract

In this article the authors attempts to provide the foundations for an education for the
imagination in accordance with Gaston Bachelard’s perspective developed around the No Pedagogy and
the dreamer's “cogito” (as opposed to dogmatic rationalism and naive empiricism), whilst integrates the
creative imagination, a fundamental dimension and tool to any imaginative mind. It thus characterizes
the No Pedagogy as a pedagogy capable of conducting a dialogue and establishing a balance between
thought and imagination while assigning it a relevant role by combining scientific objectivity and poetic
imagination; it finally discusses the possibility of thinking of an education for the imagination on the basis of the dreamer's “cogito”. By highlighting the powers and functions of the imagination whilst using
rhetorical figures such as antithesis, hyperbole, antiphrase and euphemism, and the play of images that
this use entails, the article underscores the euphemizing function of imagination and its capacity of
semantic innovation, by leading to the “remythologization” of the world, fulfilling a “new pedagogical
spirit” that, coherently with the “new scientific spirit”, combines scientific objectivity and poetic
imagination.