Paul Standish - Böcker

Following Lyotard's death in 1998, this book provides an exploration of the recurrent theme of education in his work. It brings to a wider audience the significance of a body of thought about education that is subtle, profound and still largely unexplored. This book also makes an important contribution to contemporary debates on postmoderism and education.

Following Lyotard's death in 1998, this book provides an exploration of the recurrent theme of education in his work. It brings to a wider audience the significance of a body of thought about education that is subtle, profound and still largely unexplored. This book also makes an important contribution to contemporary debates on postmoderism and education.

In this important survey, an international group of leading philosophers chart the development of philosophy of education in the twentieth century and point to signficant questions for its future. Presents a definitive introduction to the core areas of philosophy of education. Contains 20 newly-commissioned articles, all of which are written by internationally distinguished scholars. Each chapter reviews a problem, examines the current state of the discipline with respect to the topic, and discusses possible futures of the field. Provides a solid foundation for further study.

This work challenges some of the assumptions behind recent thinking on lifelong learning and discusses the idea of the learning society through a reappraisal of the relationship between the university and the community. It reconsiders the demand for efficiency, effectiveness and accountability.

This book addresses concerns about educational and moral standards in a world increasingly characterised by nihilism. On the one hand there is widespread anxiety that standards are falling; on the other, new machinery of accountability and inspection to show that they are not. The authors in this book state that we cannot avoid nihilism if we are simply laissez-faire about values, neither can we reduce them to standards of performance, nor must we return to traditional values. They state that we need to create a new set of values based on a critical assessment of contemporary practice in the light of a number of philosophical texts that address the question of nihilism, including the work of Nietzsche.

This book addresses concerns about educational and moral standards in a world increasingly characterised by nihilism. On the one hand there is widespread anxiety that standards are falling; on the other, new machinery of accountability and inspection to show that they are not. The authors in this book state that we cannot avoid nihilism if we are simply laissez-faire about values, neither can we reduce them to standards of performance, nor must we return to traditional values. They state that we need to create a new set of values based on a critical assessment of contemporary practice in the light of a number of philosophical texts that address the question of nihilism, including the work of Nietzsche.

What could it mean to speak of philosophy as "the education of grownups"? This book takes Stanley Cavell's much-quoted, yet enigmatic phrase as the provocation for a series of explorations into themes of education that run throughout his work – through his response to Wittgenstein, Austin and ordinary language philosophy, through his readings of Thoreau and of the moral perfectionism he identifies with Emerson, through his discussions of literature and film. Hilary Putnam has described Cavell not only as one of the most creative thinkers of today but as amongst the few contemporary philosophers to explore the territory of philosophy as education. Yet in mainstream philosophy his work is apt to be referred to rather than engaged with, and the full import of his writings for education is still to be appreciated. Cavell engages in a sustained exploration of the nature of philosophy, and this is not separable from his preoccupation with what it is to teach and to learn, with the kinds of transformation these might imply, and with the significance of these things for our language and politics, for our lives as a whole.In recent years Cavell's work has been the subject of a number of books of essays, but this is the first to address directly the importance of education in his work. Such matters cannot fail to be of significance not only for the disciplinary fields of philosophy and education, but in politics, literature, and film studies – and in the humanities as a whole. A substantial introduction provides an overview of the philosophical purchase of questions of education in his work, while the essays are framed by two new pieces by Cavell himself. The book shows what it means to read Cavell, and simultaneously what it means to read philosophically, in itself a part of our education as grownups.

The 'postmodern condition,' in which instrumentalism usurps all other considerations, has produced a kind of intellectual paralysis in the world of education. It is difficult to take issue with such shibboleths of our time as 'standards', 'effectiveness' or 'quality', or the transmission of a nation's 'heritage', yet many people sense that important values are being lost as the education systems of the developed world increasingly devote themselves to managerialism and 'performativity', the quest for efficiency and effectiveness that can be quantified.This book shows how a sustained and telling critique of current educational policy and practice can be developed from the writings of such postmodern thinkers as Lyotard, Derrida, Foucault, and Lacan. These thinkers show us new directions, making what has become over-familiar in education seem strange, and they shake us out of established ways of thinking and writing. The book reveals how very different certain aspects of education—for instance, literacy, moral education (in the home as well as the school), curriculum policy and planning—look in the light of these ideas. The book makes many of the central ideas of postmodern theory accessible by demonstrating their relevance to familiar aspects of the practice of education.

The 'postmodern condition,' in which instrumentalism usurps all other considerations, has produced a kind of intellectual paralysis in the world of education. It is difficult to take issue with such shibboleths of our time as 'standards', 'effectiveness' or 'quality', or the transmission of a nation's 'heritage', yet many people sense that important values are being lost as the education systems of the developed world increasingly devote themselves to managerialism and 'performativity', the quest for efficiency and effectiveness that can be quantified.This book shows how a sustained and telling critique of current educational policy and practice can be developed from the writings of such postmodern thinkers as Lyotard, Derrida, Foucault, and Lacan. These thinkers show us new directions, making what has become over-familiar in education seem strange, and they shake us out of established ways of thinking and writing. The book reveals how very different certain aspects of education—for instance, literacy, moral education (in the home as well as the school), curriculum policy and planning—look in the light of these ideas. The book makes many of the central ideas of postmodern theory accessible by demonstrating their relevance to familiar aspects of the practice of education.

This work challenges some of the assumptions behind recent thinking on lifelong learning and discusses the idea of the learning society through a reappraisal of the relationship between the university and the community. It reconsiders the demand for efficiency, effectiveness and accountability.

Winner of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia 2025 Book AwardRecognizing the strategic role that national identities play in post-colonial struggles for justice, this book conceptualizes a new approach to teaching national identity that, following Hannah Arendt, emphasizes children’s ability to renew culture. The book uses the Philippine colonial experience as a case study, and includes a genealogy of Hannah Arendt’s concept of the ’social’, including an analysis of how she used this idea to explore the role that schools play within the political community. Azada-Palacios problematizes the way that national identity is valued as an educational goal in Philippine schools and the way that Philippine citizenship education continues to aspire towards a homogeneity of culture. Through an examination of colonial-era documents, she traces this characteristic of colonial history, and identifies this aspiration as an unreflective perpetuation of American colonial educational policy that has not been sufficiently criticized.

Winner of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia 2025 Book AwardRecognizing the strategic role that national identities play in post-colonial struggles for justice, this book conceptualizes a new approach to teaching national identity that, following Hannah Arendt, emphasizes children’s ability to renew culture. The book uses the Philippine colonial experience as a case study, and includes a genealogy of Hannah Arendt’s concept of the ’social’, including an analysis of how she used this idea to explore the role that schools play within the political community. Azada-Palacios problematizes the way that national identity is valued as an educational goal in Philippine schools and the way that Philippine citizenship education continues to aspire towards a homogeneity of culture. Through an examination of colonial-era documents, she traces this characteristic of colonial history, and identifies this aspiration as an unreflective perpetuation of American colonial educational policy that has not been sufficiently criticized.

An Irish Times Best Book for Summer 2025In this book Joseph Dunne exposes the damage done by obsession with measurable outcomes in schools and universities. He argues for an education that respects the interpersonal fabric of learning and teaching, and that takes account of difficulties in late modern societies regarding childhood, citizenship, the relative prestige accorded to different kinds of knowledge, and the forging by individuals of a coherent identity across a whole life-course. To ask about good education, he claims, is necessarily to pose the larger question of the human good. Central to the book is a concern to elucidate the kind of practices that can best help persons to pursue this good, a concern that deepens through reflection in the final chapters on the challenges and fulfilments opened by the spiritual dimension of human life. Making his case in a series of inter-related essays, Dunne draws on his decades-long experience in teacher-education, informed by a reading of classical Greek philosophy and of several recent thinkers – including Raimond Gaita, Alasdair MacIntyre, Iris Murdoch and Charles Taylor – who are key conversation partners throughout.

An Irish Times Best Book for Summer 2025In this book Joseph Dunne exposes the damage done by obsession with measurable outcomes in schools and universities. He argues for an education that respects the interpersonal fabric of learning and teaching, and that takes account of difficulties in late modern societies regarding childhood, citizenship, the relative prestige accorded to different kinds of knowledge, and the forging by individuals of a coherent identity across a whole life-course. To ask about good education, he claims, is necessarily to pose the larger question of the human good. Central to the book is a concern to elucidate the kind of practices that can best help persons to pursue this good, a concern that deepens through reflection in the final chapters on the challenges and fulfilments opened by the spiritual dimension of human life. Making his case in a series of inter-related essays, Dunne draws on his decades-long experience in teacher-education, informed by a reading of classical Greek philosophy and of several recent thinkers – including Raimond Gaita, Alasdair MacIntyre, Iris Murdoch and Charles Taylor – who are key conversation partners throughout.

With this book Jon Levisohn argues that current history education is set up in a way that sees students of history at one end of a continuum with the academic experts in the field of history at the other, and where the goal of history education is to help students to think like historians. Building on a critical engagement with Carl Hempel, Hayden White, and David Carr, as well as contemporary work in virtue epistemology, Levisohn proposes a new theory of historiography which serves as a set of guidelines for the teaching and learning of history. According to the theory, the work of historiography is best characterized as a negotiation among narratives, weaving together received narratives with new information and ideas in order to construct a new narrative. This negotiation happens with a particular orientation towards negative evidence or ‘flexible disconfirmationism’, and is assessed according to the openness, sensitivity, responsibility, creativity, boldness and humility, i.e. the virtues of historical interpretation. The book rethinks the work of history education, offering new ways of thinking about the goals of the teaching of history, namely, in terms of the cultivation of the interpretive virtues.

With this book Jon Levisohn argues that current history education is set up in a way that sees students of history at one end of a continuum with the academic experts in the field of history at the other, and where the goal of history education is to help students to think like historians. Building on a critical engagement with Carl Hempel, Hayden White, and David Carr, as well as contemporary work in virtue epistemology, Levisohn proposes a new theory of historiography which serves as a set of guidelines for the teaching and learning of history. According to the theory, the work of historiography is best characterized as a negotiation among narratives, weaving together received narratives with new information and ideas in order to construct a new narrative. This negotiation happens with a particular orientation towards negative evidence or ‘flexible disconfirmationism’, and is assessed according to the openness, sensitivity, responsibility, creativity, boldness and humility, i.e. the virtues of historical interpretation. The book rethinks the work of history education, offering new ways of thinking about the goals of the teaching of history, namely, in terms of the cultivation of the interpretive virtues.

This book explores the themes of seriousness and human voice in education, drawing on the work of the American philosopher Stanley Cavell. Cavell’s views on culture, the arts, politics, morality, judgement, vulnerability, and the need for people to find something they can be sincere and serious in, are discussed in relation to education. The book represents a reappraisal of seriousness in education, art and philosophy, getting to the heart of what matters in education beyond ideology. Drawing on examples from film, theatre, literature and educational practice, it provides a philosophical analysis of conventional assumptions of educational seriousness. It offers an analysis of the central importance of voice and expression in education for both learners and teachers in terms of what it means to speak authentically; both literally, in conversation, and through forms of artistic expression. Carefully chosen examples offer insights into the value of drama in education for understanding the way in which we each inhabit a voice and body and give it expression. Cavell’s work is brought into conversation with a number of philosophers, with Austin, Dewey, Derrida and Wittgenstein all contributing to a reappraisal of what it means to be serious and how slippery and elusive this can be.

This book explores the themes of seriousness and human voice in education, drawing on the work of the American philosopher Stanley Cavell. Cavell’s views on culture, the arts, politics, morality, judgement, vulnerability, and the need for people to find something they can be sincere and serious in, are discussed in relation to education. The book represents a reappraisal of seriousness in education, art and philosophy, getting to the heart of what matters in education beyond ideology. Drawing on examples from film, theatre, literature and educational practice, it provides a philosophical analysis of conventional assumptions of educational seriousness. It offers an analysis of the central importance of voice and expression in education for both learners and teachers in terms of what it means to speak authentically; both literally, in conversation, and through forms of artistic expression. Carefully chosen examples offer insights into the value of drama in education for understanding the way in which we each inhabit a voice and body and give it expression. Cavell’s work is brought into conversation with a number of philosophers, with Austin, Dewey, Derrida and Wittgenstein all contributing to a reappraisal of what it means to be serious and how slippery and elusive this can be.

This book examines the relationship between the educational activities of civil society and those of the state via three case studies in vocational education, political education, and educational markets. Winch argues that the narrower educational activities of the state cannot be understood independently of those that take place in civil society which consists of institutions such as families, churches, businesses, trade unions, charities and political associations. Drawing on arguments and ideas in the work of Hume, Wittgenstein, Rhees, Vico, Hegel and Gramsci and building on the work of authors such as Bakhurst, Roedl and Hamlyn, the book breaks new ground in offering a philosophical account of civil society and the place of education within it. It is relevant to a range of societies, including those without a state or where the state has little influence, located in geographically and temporally diverse contexts.

This book examines the relationship between the educational activities of civil society and those of the state via three case studies in vocational education, political education, and educational markets. Winch argues that the narrower educational activities of the state cannot be understood independently of those that take place in civil society which consists of institutions such as families, churches, businesses, trade unions, charities and political associations. Drawing on arguments and ideas in the work of Hume, Wittgenstein, Rhees, Vico, Hegel and Gramsci and building on the work of authors such as Bakhurst, Roedl and Hamlyn, the book breaks new ground in offering a philosophical account of civil society and the place of education within it. It is relevant to a range of societies, including those without a state or where the state has little influence, located in geographically and temporally diverse contexts.

This book contrasts two prominent models of education, Competence-Based Education (CBE) which is the dominant model in most school systems of the world, and Bildung-Oriented Education (BOE), once the basis of school systems of Northern Europe. CBE interprets learning as the acquisition of clearly definable and allegedly measurable competences, and it is supported by supranational organisations, such as the OECD. BOE characterises learning holistically, aimed at the progressive articulation of a meaningful ‘big picture’ in the student’s mind. Moretti and Marabini argue that, in spite of its celebrated ‘scientificity’, CBE is incoherent and unreliable, and contributes to structural forms of oppression and injustice, fosters social pathologies, and fails to provide students with the kind of intellectual autonomy they need in our complex post-industrial societies. They defend BOE from objections made by critical theorists, poststructuralists and postcolonial thinkers, and argue that it is a coherent and flexible model of education that endows students with autonomy and responsibility, and can help heal social pathologies. The book builds analytical bridges and explores connections between philosophy of education and important issues currently debated in critical theory, political philosophy and social epistemology.

This book analyses the language used and approaches employed by community education organizations, focusing on the values that educators and practitioners promote among the young people in their care.Young people participating in nonformal community education programs are encouraged by staff to identify with certain ideas or values: “Acquire life skills, become an entrepreneur!” “Fight for your rights!”, “Discover your true self!”, “Get out of the house and re-establish your connection with nature!”. Whether implicitly or explicitly, these messages are imbued with values.Based on a study of 12 community organizations in North America, this book identifies four “ethical frames”: the ethical frame of the entrepreneur, of the activist, the artist, and the naturalist. Ilya Zrudlo argues that while each of these frames brings strengths to community education, they also carry certain ethical and educational ambiguities that render them ultimately inadequate, whether alone or in combination. Drawing on the work of philosophers including Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, Iris Murdoch, Mary Midgeley and Charles Taylor, Zrudlo offers guidance for community organizations, policy makers, and researchers when navigating the moral landscape of nonformal youth education.

In recent years, philosophical issues in nursing and health care have become more evident in the academic literature. The Philosophy of Nurse Education covers a variety of philosophical perspectives and enhances ideas of learning, teaching and curriculum design.

Higher education plays a vital role in the sharing of the identity and culture of Europe and therefore receives considerable attention from scholars and policy makers. This volume is different in that it brings a philosophical perspective to the debate on higher education in Europe. As a work of applied philosophy, it reflects on changes in European identity with the development of the European Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall and considers the reciprocal relationship between these changes and higher education. By uncovering the unavoidable philosophical problems embedded in policies, the book sets out both to provide a clearer understanding of the current situation of higher education in Europe and to contribute to its development. It attempts to redefine the democratic basis of higher education in the light of social and political change in the evolving European society.

Translation exposes aspects of language that can easily be ignored, renewing the sense of the proximity and inseparability of language and thought. The ancient quarrel between philosophy and literature was an early expression of a self-understanding of philosophy that has, in some quarters at least, survived the centuries. This book explores the idea of translation as a philosophical theme and as an important feature of philosophy and practical life, especially in relation to the work of Stanley Cavell.The essays in this volume explore philosophical questions about translation, especially in the light of the work of Stanley Cavell. They take the questions raised by translation to be of key importance not only for philosophical thinking but for our lives as a whole. Thoreau’s enigmatic remark “The truth is translated” reveals that apparently technical matters of translation extend through human lives to remarkable effect, conditioning the ways in which the world comes to light. The experience of the translator exemplifies the challenge of judgement where governing rules and principles are incommensurable; and it shows something of the ways in which words come to us, opening new possibilities of thought. This book puts Cavell’s rich exploration of these matters into conversation with traditions of pragmatism and European thought. Translation, then, far from a merely technical matter, is at work in human being, and it is the means of humanisation. The book brings together philosophers and translators with common interests in Cavell and in the questions of language at the heart of his work.

Translation exposes aspects of language that can easily be ignored, renewing the sense of the proximity and inseparability of language and thought. The ancient quarrel between philosophy and literature was an early expression of a self-understanding of philosophy that has, in some quarters at least, survived the centuries. This book explores the idea of translation as a philosophical theme and as an important feature of philosophy and practical life, especially in relation to the work of Stanley Cavell.The essays in this volume explore philosophical questions about translation, especially in the light of the work of Stanley Cavell. They take the questions raised by translation to be of key importance not only for philosophical thinking but for our lives as a whole. Thoreau’s enigmatic remark “The truth is translated” reveals that apparently technical matters of translation extend through human lives to remarkable effect, conditioning the ways in which the world comes to light. The experience of the translator exemplifies the challenge of judgement where governing rules and principles are incommensurable; and it shows something of the ways in which words come to us, opening new possibilities of thought. This book puts Cavell’s rich exploration of these matters into conversation with traditions of pragmatism and European thought. Translation, then, far from a merely technical matter, is at work in human being, and it is the means of humanisation. The book brings together philosophers and translators with common interests in Cavell and in the questions of language at the heart of his work.

The work of the Kyoto School represents one of the few streams of philosophy that originate in Japan. Following the cultural renaissance of the Meiji Restoration after Japan’s period of closure to the outside world (1600-1868), this distinctly Japanese thought found expression especially in the work of Kitaro Nishida, Keiji Nishitani and Hajime Tanabe. Above all this is a philosophy of experience, of human becoming, and of transformation. In pursuit of these themes it brings an inheritance of Western philosophy that encompasses William James, Hume, Kant and Husserl, as well as the psychology of Wilhelm Wundt, into conjunction with Eastern thought and practice. Yet the legacy and continuing reception of the Kyoto School have not been easy, in part because of the coincidence of its prominence with the rise of Japanese fascism. In light of this, then, the School’s ongoing relationship to the thought of Heidegger has an added salience. And yet this remains a rich philosophical line of thought with remarkable salience for educational practice.The present collection focuses on the Kyoto School in three unique ways. First, it concentrates on the School’s distinctive account of human becoming. Second, it examines the way that, in the work of its principal exponents, diverse traditions of thought in philosophy and education are encountered and fused. Third, and with a broader canvas, it considers why the rich implications of the Kyoto School for for philosophy and education have not been more widely appreciated, and it seeks to remedy this.The first part of the book introduces the historical and philosophical background of the Kyoto School, illustrating its importance especially for aesthetic education, while the second part looks beyond this to explore the convergence of relevant streams of philosophy, East and West, ranging from the Noh play and Buddhist practices to American transcendentalism and post-structuralism.