ABSTRACT
Philosophical analysis concerning selfhood and care is of fundamental importance for child care and education. Martin Heidegger’s analytic of Dasein introduces the concepts of self and care within the ontological domain while structuring the holistic understanding of human existence. Because of the ontological emphasis, Heidegger’s concepts of self and care have mainly been overridden in relation to the more or less practical questions of child care and education. This article studies Heidegger’s analytic of Dasein and its implications for the philosophy of child care and education. The interconnection between the phenomena of care and selfhood and the question of how to pay attention to a child’s selfhood are studied in this article. As the outcome of the study, it is proposed that the analytic of Dasein, especially its ideas about selfhood and authentic care, could offer an advantageous ontological perspective for an elaboration of the theory of relational selfhood and reciprocal care.
