Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T20:01:47.503Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Epistemology and Education: An Incomplete Guide to the Social-Epistemological Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2012

Harvey Siegel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Recent work in epistemology has focused increasingly on the social dimensions of knowledge and inquiry. Education is one important social arena in which knowledge plays a leading role, and in which knowledge-claims are presented, analyzed, evaluated, and transmitted. Philosophers of education have long attended to the epistemological issues raised by the theory and practice of education (along with the moral, metaphysical, social-political, and mind/language issues so raised). While historically philosophical issues concerning education were treated alongside other philosophical issues, in recent times the former set of issues have been largely neglected by philosophers working in the core areas of the discipline. Interestingly, the rise of social epistemology has been accompanied by a renewed interest by mainstream philosophers in philosophical questions concerning education. Whether or not this accompaniment is accidental, or is legitimately explainable in terms of broad intellectual, philosophical, or social/political currents and movements, I will not endeavor to address here. The increasing respectability of and philosophical interest in both social epistemology and philosophy of education are in any case salutary developments, each signaling both a broadening of the set of interests and issues deemed legitimate by practitioners of the parent discipline, and an increased willingness to take seriously the philosophical problems raised by the ubiquitous social/communal effort to transmit/transform culture(s) by way of education.

Type
Research Article
Information
Episteme , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , October 2004 , pp. 129 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, Jonathan E. (2002). Belief's Own Ethics. Cambridge: MIT.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coady, C. A. J. (1992). Testimony: A Philosophical Study. Oxford: Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Elgin, Catherine Z. (1999). Epistemology's Ends, Pedagogy's Prospects. Facta Philosophica 1, 39–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elgin, Catherine Z. (1999a). Education and the Advancement of Understanding. Proceedings of the 20th World Congress of Philosophy, vol. 3, ed. Steiner, David M., Philosophy Documentation Center, 131–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fricker, E. (1994). Against Gullibility. In Matilal, B.K. and Chakrabarti, A., eds., Knowing from Words, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 125–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fricker, E. (1995). Telling and Trusting: Reductionism and Anti-Reductionism in the Epistemology of Testimony. Mind 104, 393–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Alvin I. (1999). Knowledge in a Social World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Kevin (1999). Aims! Whose Aims? In Marples, Roger, ed., The Aims of Education, London: Routledge, 1–13.Google Scholar
Scheffler, Israel (1960). The Language of Education. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Scheffler, Israel (1965). Conditions of Knowledge. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company.Google Scholar
Scheffler, Israel (1989). Reason and Teaching. Indianapolis: Hackett. Originally published in 1973 by Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Scheffler, Israel (1991). In Praise of the Cognitive Emotions. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (1987). Relativism Refuted: A Critique of Contemporary Epistemological Relativism. Dordrecht: D. Reidel/Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (1988). Educating Reason: Rationality, Critical Thinking, and Education. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (1997). Rationality Redeemed?: Further Dialogues on an Educational Ideal. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (1997a). Science Education: Multicultural and Universal. Interchange 28, 2, 97–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (1999). Multiculturalism and the Possibility of Transcultural Educational and Philosophical Ideals. Philosophy 74, 387–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (1999a): Argument Quality and Cultural Difference. Argumentation 13, 2, 183–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (2001). Incommensurability, Rationality and Relativism: In Science, Culture, and Science Education. In Hoyningen-Huene, Paul and Sankey, Howard, eds., Incommensurability and Related Matters, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 207–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (2002). Multiculturalism, Universalism, and Science Education: In Search of Common Ground. Science Education 86, 6, 803–820.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (2002a). Public Education, Democratic Citizenship and Cultural Difference: The Role of Reason in Multicultural Democratic Education. The School Field 13, 6, 33–39.Google Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (2003). Cultivating Reason. In Curren, Randall (ed.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Education. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 305–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (2003a). The Bearing of Philosophy of Science on Science Education, and Vice Versa: The Case of Constructivism. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 35, 185–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (2004). Relativism. In Niiniluoto, I., Sintonen, M., and Wolenski, J. (eds.), Handbook of Epistemology, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 747–780.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (forthcoming). Truth, Thinking, Testimony and Trust: Alvin Goldman on Epistemology and Education. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.Google Scholar
Siegel, Harvey (forthcoming a). The Philosophy of Education. Encyclopaedia Britannica.Google Scholar
Smith, Mike U. and Siegel, Harvey (2004). Knowing, Believing, and Understanding: What Goals for Science Education? Science & Education 13, 553–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snook, I. A. ed. (1972). Concepts of Indoctrination: Philosophical Essays. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Spiecker, Ben and Straughan, Roger (1991). Freedom and Indoctrination in Education: International Perspectives. London: Cassell.Google Scholar