La creazione di valore nella pedagogia di Tsunesaburo Makiguchi

This article presents some of the key aspects of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi’s philosophy of education. Makiguchi was a Japanese pedagogist, known for being the founder of the Soka educational movement. The philosophy of value creation had the aim of revolutionizing the Japanese educational system in the early years of the last century, but it obtained much more: it laid the foundations for the birth of the Buddhist association Soka Gakkai, which today welcomes millions of members in Worldwide. In this work, reflection on the concept of value plays a central role. It is useful for underlining the differences between Makiguchi's perspective and the Western one. The analogies between Makiguchian philosophy and Capitini's thoughts on “addition” are further discussed, as well as some elements in common between the examined educational model and the proposals that were powered by Pestalozzi and Freinet.