From unity to multiplicity: Comenius’ and Montaigne’s didactics and diversity and its contributions to contemporaneity

Abstract

During the textual profusion derived from Gutenberg’s press, Comenius and Montaigne elaborated pedagogical reflections that, more or less evidently, take the diversity of opinions and interpretations as an object and propose different ways to deal with it. The former tries to neutralize it by reinforcing the divine word as the only one and, hence, the reference to define what is important inside schools, whereas the latter proposes “experiencing the world” and the power of this variety to provide more modest and responsible outlines to what is known. This study aims to describe these viewpoints to reflect on how they may contribute to discuss contemporary classroom, which is also crossed by multiple discourses (whether true or not) originated from digital technologies.