O Autotelismo do Conhecimento na Educação Amazônida – The Autotelism of Knowledge in Amazonian Education

This study investigates the relationship that students at different levels of education have with the acquisition of knowledge, highlighting the concept of autotelism – the search for intrinsic excellence. Reflections on the concepts of “good” and “useful” are based on authors such as Aristotle, Plato and Csikszentmihalyi. An online questionnaire was administered to sixty high school, college and postgraduation students, revealing an increase in autotelism as the educational level advances. It is proposed that secondary education can learn from higher levels to promote more pleasurable and humanized learning, valuing knowledge not only for its usefulness, but also for its potential to enrich students' life experience.