Digital technologies are changing our understanding of ethical emulation. In this article, Matthew Dennis proposes that some social media technologies have given rise to a strikingly new set of ethical ideals, often concerned with the ideal of self-cultivation. While there is relatively little philosophical discussion of these kinds of ideals,…

Recent philosophy and theory of education have witnessed considerable attention to the notion of flourishing as a benchmark or guiding principle for educational practice. There can also be little doubt that -- while not all recent advocates of flourishing have drawn explicitly on Aristotle -- a focus on flourishing has emerged in the wake of…

In this article, Ilya Zrudlo unpacks the educationally limiting effects of conflicting visions of the good embedded in Western modernity and offers a developmental vision of modernity for education that is more coherent and productive of student agency. Drawing on Charles Taylor's work, Zrudlo disarticulates four aspects of Western modernity --…

If the received views on self-transformation in philosophical literature are correct, then either self-transformation (1) is caused by forces beyond oneself and beyond one's control, (2) is not rational to pursue, or (3) does not ever really happen. In this essay, James Gordon highlights the philosophical puzzle known as the…

In this essay Ryan Kemp makes an unlikely case for value stability, arguing that people should almost never aspire to become radically different and that, given this, some people should be reluctant to pursue educational experiences that wildly broaden their life possibilities. His account is developed and structured around two borrowed examples,…

Despite his popularity in educational discourses, Lev S. Vygotsky tends to be read mainly as an educational psychologist or learning theorist. His potential contribution to a theory of education remains largely undiscussed. The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is often misunderstood as a sort of "educational tool," which severely…

In February 2012, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released an interim report that detailed its findings based on extensive testimony by former students of the nation's residential school system, a system designed to forcibly assimilate aboriginal peoples. The report concludes that the state must play an active role in the restoration…

In this essay, David Meens examines the viability of John Dewey's democratic educational project, as presented in "Democracy and Education," under present economic and political conditions. He begins by considering "Democracy and Education's" central themes in historical context, arguing that Dewey's proposal for democratic…

Kristján Kristjánsson's aim in this article is to bury the old saw that dialogue is exclusively a Socratic but not an Aristotelian method of education for moral character. Although the truncated discussion in Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics" of the character development of the young may indicate that it is merely the result of…

In this analysis Jane Blanken-Webb extends Elliot Eisner's account of how learning in the arts contributes to the creation of mind. Drawing on the psychoanalytic theory of D. W. Winnicott, Blanken-Webb argues that the acts of meaning making to which Eisner attends rely on a prior developmental achievement--namely, the establishment of…

How can we understand human agency, and what does it mean to educate character? In this essay Klas Roth develops a Kantian notion, one that suggests we render ourselves efficacious and autonomous in education and elsewhere. This requires, among other things, that we are successful in bringing about the intended result through our actions and the…

Philosophers of education have had a longstanding interest in the nature and value of reason. Literature can provide an important source of insight in addressing questions in this area. One writer who is especially helpful in this regard is Fyodor Dostoevsky. In this essay Peter Roberts provides an educational reading of Dostoevsky's highly…

A recent report on the UK's higher education system by Lord John Browne exemplifies the dominant trend in education policy initiatives toward a focus on education primarily for employment and for the acquisition of skills. In this essay, Alison Assiter argues that such an entrepreneurial approach neglects essential aspects of the processes of…

Scholars from multiple disciplines have commented on the divided nature of childhood as a historical construction: a period of life to be valued in itself as well as a means to adulthood. In this essay, James Stillwaggon considers George Orwell's "Such, Such Were the Joys," an autobiographical account of his childhood education, as a site of…

In educational scholarship, a number of comparisons have been made between the work of John Dewey and Herbert Spencer, many claiming that Spencer's influence is unmistakable in Dewey's theories or even that Dewey is derivative of Spencer. However, one must look beyond the surface similarities of Dewey and Spencer and recognize the drastically…