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B. Spinoza (1632-1677) is one of the central figures in the history of philosophy that has significantly influenced the Western culture. Generally known as a rationalist, Spinoza was less widely accepted as a philosopher of education, although such an outline is outlined in his writings. An explanation for this may be that in none of his works did Spinoza explicitly address education. However, concepts, values and implications of ethical theory that are particularly relevant in educational endeavors can be easily identified in Spinozian texts. In this paper we intend to explore the conceptual resources provided by Spinoza that underlie the moral education and place them in the contemporary educational context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of our paper is to reconstruct three fundamental Western ways of thinking around the valuation of two entities, the community and the individual. The three paradigms considered are: the Greek one, the Christian medieval one and the modern one. The hypothesis is specified in three ways: the Greek philosophy has focused on the community; the Christian and modern thinking have focused on the individual (the person); the former on the divine individual and the latter on the human one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]