 Philosophical fundations of learning a rhythmoformation of the course of adult life 
With the help of a professional autobiography of sixty years of research in adult continuing education, the article explains the references that have philosophically anchored the construction of a “rhythm-formative” problem of adult learning, throughout and in all sectors of life. This construction took place over three transatlantic periods : an initial period in Europe (1959-1969) of entry into adult life (20-30 years) in a laborious research-training on the meaning to life ; a second in Quebec (1969-1985) of design, construction and conduct of research programs in continuing education at the Faculty of Continuing Education of the University of Montreal (30-45 years) ; and finally a third, as professor-researcher at the University of Tours (1985-2007), in co-creation of diplomas and university research-training groups for adults (45-67 years). Two preschool philosophical anchors – Plato’s cave and Rousseau’s Émile – and a post-school and transdisciplinary anchoring of a systemic dialectical epistemology, appear to gradually contribute in a dominant way to the conceptualization of a “rhythm-formative” approach to the course of adult life, in two stages (experiential/formal) and three movements (auto, socio and ecoformation).