Kant's life shows us that it is possible to be a philosopher who revolutionises our thinking about morality in terms of freedom--in fact, to be the first to propose that treating others morally is to treat them with respect or as having dignity--while simultaneously dehumanising himself and others. It presumably follows from this that we can teach…

Interest in the role of casuistry and casuistical questions in Kant's "Doctrine of Virtue" ("DV"), i.e. the second part of the "Metaphysics of Morals," has grown in recent years. My own position is formulated in Schuessler (2012, in German), the main thesis of which will be retained here in an updated form and with…

The concept of "phronesis" enters educational discourse at various levels of engagement, and it continues to fascinate and frustrate educational theorists in equal measure. This article begins by charting the vagaries of three educational discourses on phronesis, and by eliciting insights from the recently burgeoning wisdom research…

This article argues that ancient Chinese Tao ("The Way") philosophy--which can be traced back more than two thousand years--can explain the essence and philosophy of physical literacy. The motivation, confidence, physical competence, and knowledge and understanding that are needed to value and take responsibility for engagement in…

Current conceptions of accountability imply that, in order for teachers to be able to hold themselves to account, they need first to have cultivated certain 'professional dispositions'. But these conceptions fail to acknowledge the extent to which teachers are first and foremost accountable 'as such'. For the early existentialist thought of the…

This article examines approaches to education developed by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and his contemporary and close friend, Friedrich Niethammer, two thinkers who significantly contributed to pedagogy. The aim is not only to compare both thinkers' ideas concerning education, analysing the similarities and the differences between their…

To many philosophers of education who are dissatisfied with the current value-neutral goal-driven technocratic curriculum, the idea of "Bildung"--which I conceive here in the neo-humanist form associated with Wilhelm von Humboldt--holds great appeal. It seems to promise, on the one hand, a richer, culturally situated form of rationality,…

Post-critical pedagogy, which offers a significant alternative to the dominant trends in contemporary philosophy of education, objects to seeing education as instrumental to other ends: it attempts to conceive of education as "autotelic," namely as having intrinsic value. While there are good reasons for accepting the post-critical…

In 1952, John Cage wrote "4'33"" which famously asked the performer not to play a single note: "tacet." This provocative work raises a number of questions. In music--and by extension, music education--what does it mean to not do something? What does it mean to make no sound? More fundamentally, what is the nature of…

Addressing a research gap concerning the insufficient philosophical discourses on social justice from non-Western traditions, this article conceptualises social justice in education from a Daoist perspective. Drawing upon a Chinese classic "Daodejing," it is argued that Daoism is aligned with relational justice through its emphasis on…

In this short article, in response to the urgent invitation of Arcilla's book, I would like to address the question of how to resuscitate liberal education today and how this might be possible with education through film. First, I shall highlight the perfectionist dimension of Arcilla's idea of liberal education from the perspective of Emersonian…

A different way of seeing, in the work of René Arcilla, contains the possibility for a different way of being. For Arcilla, it matters whether and how we attend to what is visually presented to us. He developed this idea in his earlier work, "Mediumism" (2011), in which he proposed that modernist visual arts, particularly artwork that…

This paper presents an argument that social theory has valuable roles to play in music education research and philosophy. I first discuss how theory can enhance and strengthen empirical work--and provide insights and connections that abstracted empiricism alone cannot. Then, I argue that social theory--developed, extended, and advanced through…

The core epistemologies underlying science education have changed little over the past 40 years: whereas science educators tend to take constructivist stances, many or most teachers tend to be concerned with the appropriation and transfer of facts and theories mandated as outcomes in the curriculum guidelines of the relevant authorities (e.g.,…

We argue for a virtue epistemological approach to the demarcation problem, for we think that such an approach makes sense from the perspective of an ameliorative epistemology. We argue that sustained and consistent pseudoscientific beliefs and attitudes call for an explanation in terms of underlying epistemic vices, and that remedying them calls…