THE EMERGENCE OF PRAGMATIC PHILOSOPHY'S INFLUENCE ON LITERARY THEORY: MAKING MEANING WITH TEXTS FROM A TRANSACTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

A bstract .  In this review essay, Jeanne Connell examines the influence of pragmatic philosophy on the scholarly works of twentieth-century literary theorist and English educator Louise Rosenblatt through the lens of a recent collection of her essays originally published between 1936 and 1999. Rosenblatt grounded her transactional theory of literature in pragmatic philosophy, particularly the epistemological constructs of John Dewey. While influential as a pioneer in the early development of reader-response theory, Rosenblatt's theory has only recently been given attention by philosophers of education. Making Meaning with Texts: Selected Essays is an important collection of articles and book chapters that highlights the evolution of her thinking in literary theory, pedagogy, and literary criticism. Rosenblatt positioned the construction of meaning in the personal lived-through quality of the literary experience, making central the generative relation between the text and the reader. Connell argues that the educational relevance of Rosenblatt's theory for contemporary education is that it provides a powerful critique of classroom approaches that promote shallow readings with little opportunity for critical reflection.     

Anxieties of Democracy and Education: Naoko Saito's American Philosophy in Translation

The article is an essay on Naoko Saito's recently published book American Philosophy in Translation. We attempt to draw out the central argument of the book as it moves through its eight chapters. The author finds that American philosophy, which she takes to be rooted in pragmatism, whilst it owes much to Dewey, needs to be reconstructed in order to meet contemporary political challenges, with their implications for political education. She asks questions such as what is the place of the tragic sense of life in philosophical thought? What is a philosophy of affirmation and chance? How are we to understand the significance of the untranslatable? What are these connections between transcendence, translation and transformation? More specifically, how are we to understand the distinction between philosophy in translation and philosophy as translation? And how does all this offer us new ways of thinking about the current state of democracy, political education and education more generally? One specific suggestion is that an education in foreign language can be transformative in terms of political education. The article concludes that Saito's project throws up some important ideas that are pertinent to our times. We question the central idea regarding language education, whilst we welcome this scholarly volume.     

试析刘亚猛《西方修辞学史》的学术话语建构

《西方修辞学史》是一部新颖、独特的学科史论著。该书与国外同类作品的一个显著区别是,作者置身于一个跨文化语境,不受西方政治意识形态立场、欧洲中心主义、学术政治等的掣肘,将西方修辞学科史置于广阔的社会、历史尤其是智力语境等大背景中加以考察,围绕西方修辞学的滥觞及其兴衰成败的发展历程这一主线,囊括主要的修辞思想家及其代表作品,内容涉及修辞与哲学、宗教、伦理、文学批评、论辩以及当代西方修辞研究现状及其特征等,是一部学术性较高的修辞学科史。     

The Hirst‐Carr Debate Revisited: Beyond the Theory‐Practice Dichotomy

This article examines the benefits and burdens of the debate between Paul Hirst and Wilfred Carr over a set of issues to do with philosophy and education specifically and theory and practice more generally. Hirst and Carr, in different ways, emphasise the importance of Aristotelian practical philosophy as an antidote to the theory‐oriented confined method of ‘conceptual analysis’ that has haunted the philosophy of education. Despite their proper recognition of the irreducible character of practice to theory, they fail to provide a satisfying account of their interpenetrating relation. Hirst falls into error by fencing off ‘forms of theoretical knowledge’ from ‘forms of practice’; Carr's dismissive attitude to theory is saturated with internal tensions in his own discourse. This article contends that what is left unaddressed both in Hirst's and Carr's arguments is the most fundamental sense of ‘social’, which is prior to relative differences in the standards of knowledge among societies and which reminds us that theory is not a socially disembodied enterprise. A lively appreciation of this point encourages us to see the prevailing outlook towards the relation between philosophy and education quite differently.     

History, Applications, and Philosophy in Mathematics Education: HAPh—A Use of Primary Sources

The article first investigates the basis for designing teaching activities dealing with aspects of history, applications, and philosophy of mathematics in unison by discussing and analyzing the different ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of including these three dimensions in mathematics education. Based on the observation that a use of history, applications, and philosophy as a ‘goal’ is best realized through a modules approach, the article goes on to discuss how to actually design such teaching modules. It is argued that a use of primary original sources through a so-called guided reading along with a use of student essay assignments, which are suitable for bringing out relevant meta-issues of mathematics, is a sensible way of realizing a design encompassing the three dimensions. Two concrete teaching modules on aspects of the history, applications, and philosophy of mathematics—HAPh-modules—are outlined and the mathematical cases of these, graph theory and Boolean algebra, are described. Excerpts of student groups’ essays from actual implementations of these modules are displayed as illustrative examples of the possible effect such HAPh-modules may have on students’ development of an awareness regarding history, applications, and philosophy in relation to mathematics as a (scientific) discipline.     

Reflections on teaching and learning

Ditor's Note: Jacques Barzun, one of the eminent scholars of our time, examines the current state of American education in a new book appearing this spring:Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning (The University of Chicago Press). This collection of fifteen newly edited and introduced essays covers a wide range of subjects. What follows are the introductions to three essays that he felt would be of particular interest to our readers. We thank Prof. Barzun and The University of Chicago Press for their interest in having these pieces appear in our pages.     

《大众哲学》与哲学的大众化——纪念《大众哲学》发表70周年

艾思奇的《大众哲学》是马克思主义哲学大众化的开山之作。介绍了《大众哲学》写作的历史背景，它在哲学大众化方面的特点和优点，以及在我国马克思主义哲学的宣传、教育、普及工作中的重要贡献，并对我国建国后马克思主义哲学大众化的历史进行了反思。     

Teaching Identity and Autonomy

Liberal theorists often link autonomy and identity together, since, these liberals argue, an education that bestows a particular identity on children undermines their autonomy. The charge of schools ought to be to teach children to be open to a variety of identities. Encounters with diversity and cosmopolitanism are good, since they encourage students to think deeply about their own identity, while traditional religions and nationalism seek to impress a particular identity on students. This standard liberal account, echoed in some of the essays in this book, underplays the ways in which education is a cultural practice like many others. Moreover, as other essays in this volume point out, there are good reasons to want aspects of a common culture to be transmitted in schools—in democratic states we want citizens to be able to understand one another, and to have some understanding of important historical events in the country's history. Yet schools that teach an honest history of one's country, and that teach about the country's political principles, will impress upon students only a partially shared identity. That this identity be only partly shared is important: it allows for differences among students, differences that ought to be understood, at least to some extent.     

Revisioning Philosophy of Education Instruction in Competency-Based B. Ed. Programs

This article concerns the relationship between classroom assessments that are aligned with “competencies-based” teaching in Teacher Education programs on the one hand, and on the other hand, the challenge of offering authentic “philosophy of education,” “education theory,” or “education foundations” courses for student–teachers who are enrolled in a professional degree and on the way towards certification. Briefly, administrative and accreditation concerns with developing and demonstrating core “competencies” when teaching is considered strictly as a “profession” do not align with more ancient understandings of teaching as a “way of life”—especially when that life is led in some relation to philosophy, or “the pursuit of wisdom.” This article examines the disjunction between these two conceptualizations of teaching; it encourages readers to think about how this disjunction problematizes their pedagogy as “philosophers of education.”     

Radical Constructivism. Ernst von Glasersfeld.

Radical Constructivism is currently a very influencial view in mathematics education. This paper examines its philosophical roots through a review of the book Radical Constructivism by Ernst von Glasersfeld. It begins by describing the structure of the book, and then considers a number of philosophical issues raised by the book. The paper concludes with some reflections on the relationship between philosophy and mathematics education which the book provoked.     

儿童哲学情境视域下绘本哲学启蒙教育初探

儿童哲学启蒙教育是自由教育过程,就是要把美的意识贯穿于这个过程本身,绘本则为这种教育过程提供一种有效媒介。论文以实践教育哲学为视角,结合儿童哲学、儿童发展心理学的特征,从儿童哲学情境的含义及特点出发,探索了儿童哲学情境创立的条件,并分析了绘本在儿童哲学情境中的重要作用,以及绘本哲学启蒙教育包含绘本讲读、绘本绘画、绘本戏剧表演三个方面内容,而三个部分都和哲学情境密不可分。     

Some Antecedents of Educational Philosophy in Britain with Particular Reference to Social Science

It would be convenient to pretend that the histories of educational philosophy in Britain and, by extension, the USA and Australia, were responses to a common social and intellectual history but convenience in this case could only be accomplished at the expense of explanatory power. The history of educational philosophy in these three places is parallel but not in common. Philosophy of education in Britain is more closely related to philosophy than is philosophy of education in the USA. Philosophy of education in the USA appropriated the lead of the American Social Science Association and initially retained closer connections with social science than did its English counterpart. Nevertheless, it is argued here that educational philosophy's reference to social science—Victorian and modern—is the missing explanatory element in modem histories of the discipline. The appropriation of education by social science—a common feature of the intellectual history of education in Britain, Australasia, and the USA—leavened the research agenda of educational philosophy in Britain. Peters’ educational work can be best understood as an attempt to reunite education with moral philosophy such that the study of education would resume a profile similar to its nineteenth‐century counterpart, when it was moral philosophy that provided the most interesting discussions of human nature, primitive customs, and social institutions—education among them.     

Ideas for Teachers: Russell's legacy

2001 marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of Bertrand Russell's first book about education, entitled On Education: Especially in Early Childhood, which appeared in 1926. This year is the centenary of Russell's earliest essays dealing with educational issues written in 1902. This is an appropriate occasion, therefore, to review Russell's thoughts on teaching and education. This paper examines three central ideas, kindliness, knowledge and courage, which Russell thought necessary for a good world and for good teaching, and explores his numerous remarks and suggestions about these ideas with a particular focus on their application in an educational context with a view to improving teaching. In good Russellian fashion, the discussion centres on which of Russell's ideas have helped teachers in their work.     

Mori Akira's Education for Self‐Awareness: Lessons from the Kyoto School for Mindful Education

What does it mean to educate for self‐awareness? How does this fit within education, with its other objectives, and other learning processes? These are key questions for more comprehensive versions of the mindful education movement. In order to provide some responses to these questions from a cohesive philosophical position, this article examines the philosophy of education of Mori Akira (1915–1976). It closely analyses his philosophy of self‐awareness (jikaku), while drawing comparisons with other Kyoto School philosophers. In order to fully understand Mori's particular conception of self‐awareness, it traces how this idea developed throughout his entire career: from his first book, The Philosophical Quest for Educational Ideals (1948), which focusses on the questing self‐awareness of the teacher, to the early–middle period (particularly The Practicality and Inwardness of Education, 1955, and Philosophical Anthropology of Education, 1961), which develops a systematic view of the self‐awareness of students, and to his final book, The Fundamental Principles of Human Formation (1977), which re‐examines generativity in light of uncertainty and death. What this trajectory shows is a view of education centred on self‐awareness and dynamically wrestling with key educational paradoxes, potentially deepening the philosophical grounding of mindful education.     

Betwixt and Between: Working Through the Aesthetic in Philosophy of Education: George F. Kneller Lecture,Conference of the American Educational Studies Association Savannah,Georgia, October 30, 2008

At a time when both philosophy of education and the arts are under threat within education, this article inquires into interdisciplinarity as one way of approaching the disciplines of philosophy of education and aesthetics. The article offers a retrospective autobiographical intellectual history and phenomenology of the author's own learning and scholarship within Higher Education in three main areas—philosophy of literature education, women's studies, and philosophy of music education, areas paralleling the three periods of her academic career. One sub-theme of this narrative about the balancing act of working in literature and music through philosophy of education is the author's ongoing resistance to professionalization or disciplinary academic control—of literature, philosophy, and music—while being a critical student of educational theory and practice in these areas—philosophy, literature and music within philosophy of education—of thus being “betwixt and between.” Two other themes comprising the article's subtext are “praxis” and “embodiment.” The double entendre of the phrase “working through” entails, first, using the arts of literature and music to practise philosophy of education; and secondly, embracing the psychological, ethical, and spiritual introspection that comes with critical engagement of the arts and its discourses. In short, the article aims to reprise some burning philosophical educational questions that have preoccupied its author over the years, questions deemed especially pertinent to the current increasingly diverse membership in the discipline of educational studies.     

Philosophy and theory in the study of gifted children

Philosophers in the Western tradition have, as a rule, not devoted systematic attention to children. However, a recent book, The Philosopher's Child: Critical Essays in the Western Tradition (Turner & Matthews, 1998), demonstrates that many important philosophers have discussed children in ways which are profound and illuminating with regard to children in general and gifted children in particular. This article examines a pair of positions by diverse philosophers—the ancient Stoics and the contemporary moral and political philosopher John Rawls—and shows the relevance of their disagreement concerning the way children develop morally. The position produced from this disagreement, duly developed, is then applied to two generally accepted features of giftedness, the sensitivity to justice (and injustice) as well as the frequently intense desire for perfection. The point of this application is not to suggest that the conclusions drawn from the philosophers are necessarily true, but only to show the fertile ground that the history of philosophy offers to professional educators as far as generating concepts and explanations in the field of gifted education.     

宁波书院的历史变迁

宁波的书院教育自唐始,历经五代宋元明清一千余年,为中国的教育、文化、历史、哲学等的发展等作出了全方位的贡献。宁波的书院教育在传递文化过程中,诞生了以王阳明、黄宗羲为代表的众多学术大家,所形成的浙东学术文化至今在海内外仍有深远的影响。     

ETHICS AND EDUCATION FORTY YEARS LATER

A bstract .  R.S. Peters's 1966 book Ethics and Education is one of the most significant works in twentieth-century philosophy of education. At least in the United States, however, it is now rarely read or discussed. In this essay, Bryan Warnick looks at the virtues and vices of Ethics and Education , examining some major criticisms of the book in light of key developments in philosophy and educational theory that have occurred since it was first published. He finds that some of the criticisms seem unjustified and overstated, while others can be met with a reading of the text that places its language analysis within a framework of communitarian ethics, a move made possible by rejecting Peters's fact/value dichotomy. This way of reading Ethics and Education reveals an interesting conception of what philosophy of education can be: namely, a sort of normative analytic anthropology. It also shows the value of engaging more with the recent history of philosophy of education.     

Reconstructing Pragmatism to Address Racial Injustice

Bill Lawson and Donald Koch's book Pragmatism and the Problem of Race offers a range of essays that explore the relation of pragmatic philosophy to race and racial injustice. The authors hope to understand and correct for the systematic ignorance regarding race that characterised the social philosophy of John Dewey. Some of the authors document Dewey's distance from racial matters, while other authors defend particular aspects of Dewey's pragmatic method; and some authors develop reconstructions of Dewey's position to enable it to be sensitive to racial matters and racial inequalities.