| Abstract: | John Baldacchino's discussion of the concept of autonomy in this article runs on the dual track of the arts and education. His aim is to engage with the notion of autonomy in terms of what human beings invent (through art) and know (through education) by what they share as free and intelligent beings who live convivially. Following Luigi Pareyson's argument that by form one means a living organism endowed by its own legality (and thereby its own autonomy), Baldacchino offers an analysis of Elio Petri's film La classe operaia va in Paradiso (The Working Class Goes to Heaven) as context for this discussion, which adds a third dimension to the notion of autonomy: that of the political. Here, autonomy is presented as a triangulation of sorts, where what we mean by the autonomous stands for our artistic, educational, and political dispositions (and abilities) to mediate and represent a number of immediate questions with yet-to-be-found answers. |
