Philosophers on Education by Amélie Rorty

Part 1

For the seventh meeting of the Reading Network we began our engagement with Amélie Rorty’s Philosophers on Education. As is a lengthly text we choose to begin with Chapters 1-4 and 25-27. The meeting was opened by Owen Gower, the Director of the UK Council for Graduate Education and a long-standing member of the Network. He shared with us his notes, giving an overview of the chapters, which you will find after the three themes he raised for discussion. We’d love to hear your thoughts!

For the February 2021 meeting, we looked at 6 chapters from Philosophers on Education edited by Amelie Rorty (Chapters 2-4 and 25-27).  The readings ranged from discussions of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, J.S. Mill, Marx and Dewey.

In these diverse and fascinating chapters, we came up with 3 themes:

1. Educational methodology:

   ·         Using shame to ‘educate’ people to be consistent: chapter 2

   ·         Educating emotional responses through music and theatre: chapter 4

   ·         Educating ‘moral psychology’ by tapping into group loyalties: chapter 26

   ·         Making education engaging by starting with ‘problem solving’: chapter 27

2. What are the cultural influences on education?

   ·         Can’t have a good education in a bad society: chapter 3

   ·         Social norms can stifle education: chapter 25

   ·         Education must connect the individual’s interests to social service in the society in which they live: chapter 27

3. What kind of understanding of ‘human nature’ underpins the different ideas about education in these thinkers?

   ·         Why should the fundamental beliefs of reasonable people coincide? chapter 3

   ·        Educating our emotional and intellectual responses so that they are in accordance with ‘human nature’ determines our ability to achieve happiness: chapter 4

   ·        It is human nature to seek out the application of knowledge to solving a problem we are facing: chapter 27 

Chapter Notes

Chapter 2: Socratic Education by Paul Woodruff emphasised the importance of critical and consistent thinking in Socrates’ practice of inquiry, and explored the idea of ‘teacherless education’.

Chapter 3: Plato’s Counsel On Education by Zhang Loshan (a pseudonym for Amelie Rorty) made the case, following Plato’s Republic, that the central condition for a sound education to be possible is to live in a good, well-ordered society.

Chapter 4: Aristotelian Education by C.D.C. Reeve introduced Aristotle’s view that since human beings are psychophysical organisms, education must train the body (emotions and appetites) as well as the intellect.

Chapter 25: The Past In The Present: Plato As Educator Of Nineteenth Century Britain by M. F. Burnyeat discussed the life and work of 3 Nineteenth century thinkers: JS Mill, George Grote and Benjamin Jowett.  Burnyeat explored how each of these figures found in Plato an exhortation to be critical, autonomous thinkers and to resist “King Nomos” (i.e. established morality and social conformity).

Chapter 26: Moral Education In And After Marx by Richard W. Miller posed the question of whether Marx considered that the proletariat revolution would occur when material conditions became intolerable or through a kind of moral education.

Chapter 27: Deweyan Pragmatism And American Education by Alan Ryan set itself the task of rescuing Dewey’s conception of ‘progressive education’ from the charge that it lacked intellectual discipline and that it encouraged children to seek ‘docile membership of the corporate order’.