Values, Education and the Adult (International Library of the Philosophy of Education Volume 16)

217 Pages·2010·1.86 MB·English

by  R. W. K. Paterson

INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF THE
PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
VALUES, EDUCATION AND
THE ADULT
VALUES, EDUCATION AND
THE ADULT
Edited by
R.W.K.PATERSON
Volume 16
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published in 1979
This edition first published in 2010
by Routledge
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© 1979 R.W.K.Paterson
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ISBN 0-203-86108-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 10:0-415-55946-4 (Set)
eISBN 10:0-2038-6097-7 (Set)
ISBN 10:0-415-56359-3 (Volume 16)
eISBN 10:0-203-86108-6 (Volume 16)
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eISBN 13:978-0-2038-6097-7 (Set)
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Values, education
and the adult
Edited by
R.W.K.Paterson
Routledge & Kegan Paul
London, Henley and Boston
First published in 1979
by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd
39 Store Street,
London WCIE 7DD,
Broadway House,
Newtown Road,
Henley-on-Thames,
Oxon RG9, 1EN and
9 Park Street, Boston,
Mass. 02108, USA
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of
Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks
please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© R.W.K.Paterson 1979
No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form without permission from the
publisher, except for the quotation of brief
passages in criticism
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Paterson, Ronald William Keith
Values, education and the adult—(International
library of the philosophy of education).
1 Adult education—Philosophy
1 Title
374′.001 LC5219 79–40680
ISBN 0-203-86108-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0 7100 0102 9 (Print Edition)
Contents

General editor’s note vii
Part I The concept of ‘adult education’
1 Adulthood and education 2
2 Liberal adult education and its modes 24
Part II Educational objectives
3 The communication of knowledge 44
4 The advancement of reason 69
5 The moral education of the adult 83
Part III Educational processes
6 Teaching and learning 104
7 The uses of maturity 120
Part IV Adult education and society
8 Concepts of educational justice 149
9 Education for democracy 171
Notes 183
Index 206
General editor’s note
There is a growing interest in philosophy of education amongst students of philosophy as
well as amongst those who are more specifically and practically concerned with educa-
tional problems. Philosophers, of course, from the time of Plato onwards, have taken an
interest in education and have dealt with education in the context of wider concerns about
knowledge and the good life. But it is only quite recently in this country that philosophy of
education has come to be conceived of as a specific branch of philosophy like the philoso-
phy of science or political philosophy.
To call philosophy of education a specific branch of philosophy is not, however, to
suggest that it is a distinct branch in the sense that it could exist apart from established
branches of philosophy such as epistemology, ethics, and philosophy of mind. It would be
more appropriate to conceive of it as drawing on established branches of philosophy and
bringing them together in ways which are relevant to educational issues. In this respect
the analogy with political philosophy would be a good one. Thus use can often be made of
work that already exists in philosophy. In tackling, for instance, issues such as the rights of
parents and children, punishment in schools, and the authority of the teacher, it is possible
to draw on and develop work already done by philosophers on ‘rights’, ‘punishment’, and
‘authority’. In other cases, however, no systematic work exists in the relevant branches
of philosophy—e.g. on concepts such as ‘education’, ‘teaching’, ‘learning’, ‘indoctrina-
tion’. So philosophers of education have had to break new ground—in these cases in the
philosophy of mind. Work on educational issues can also bring to life and throw new light
on long-standing problems in philosophy. Concentration, for instance, on the particular
predicament of children can throw new light on problems of punishment and responsibility.
G.E.Moore’s old worries about what sorts of things are good in themselves can be brought
to life by urgent questions about the justification of the curriculum in schools.
There is a danger in philosophy of education, as in any other applied field, of polariza-
tion to one of two extremes. The work could be practically relevant but philosophically
feeble; or it could be philosophically sophisticated but remote from practical problems.
The aim of the new International Library of the Philosophy of Education is to build up a
body of fundamental work in this area which is both practically relevant and philosophi-
cally competent. For unless it achieves both types of objective it will fail to satisfy those
for whom it is intended and fall short of the conception of philosophy of education which
the International Library is meant to embody.
‘Continuing education’ is very much a subject of ‘practical relevance’ that is supported
fervently—though, in this country at any rate, more by sentiment than by cash. It is appro-
priate, therefore, that whatever philosophical issues it raises should be discussed in a vol-
ume of the International Library of the Philosophy of Education. Dr Paterson’s ‘Values,
Education and the Adult’, which deals with the philosophy of adult education, is the first
book in the Library to be published in this field.
viii General editor’s note
Dr Paterson’s book is distinctive not only because it pioneers new ground but also
because the positions which he takes up are controversial and likely to be unpopular both
with many of his colleagues in adult education and with many philosophers of education.
He is, for instance, uncompromising in his refusal to harness education to practical or
social purposes. Education, he claims, is concerned with the development of ‘the person
in his person-hood’. He vigorously defends the importance of subject-matters and their
intrinsic criteria of worth. And he deals with moral education from a point of view that
owes much to Max Scheler.
In dealing with adult education Dr Paterson deals with a great many issues within phi-
losophy of education that have been dealt with by other philosophers. The richness of
his book, as well as the heterodox character of many of his views, should make it a book
arousing both interest and irritation amongst those working both in adult education and in
philosophy of education alike.
R.S.P.
Part I
The concept of ‘adult education’