Abstract

This article puts forward the following thesis: the legitimation of school subjects stems from an acknowledged epistemic field, from a science in its broadest sense. The more school subjects deviate from the science from which they originate the more they become weaken and disfigured. A focus on the Estado Novo period in Portugal allows for a particular understanding and emphasis placed on the context which legitimises Philosophy as a school subject in middle school. Thus, this article examines the avenues followed by Philosophy as a school subject in this particular historical period, accounting for and explaining the link between educational and instructional plans, the interference of ideology and education policy, and the transformation of school into an instrument of political, ideological education.