Europe and the World of Learning: Orthodoxy and Aspiration in the Wake of Modernity

If Rome was for centuries the centre of power and influence for Christendom and the European world of learning associated with it, Brussels can claim to be such a twofold centre in the late twentieth century. The radical pluralism and postmodernist orientations which are now part of the Enlightenment legacy becloud the point that a new uniformity of belief and outlook—mercenary rather than spiritual—furnishes the context for most educational policy-making in European countries. Far from calling for a return to a patriarchal past, the paper attempts to sketch an understanding of education as a universally defensible practice, while addressing the challenges of both postmodernism and the new uniformity.