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LIBERAL INDOCTRINATION AND THE PROBLEM OF COMMUNITY

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Abstract

Responding to claims to the contrary, this essay shows how liberal education, the education of critical exposure, indoctrinates students into a style of belief and belief formation. It argues that a common liberal view about what constitutes freedom from indoctrination is precisely the form of indoctrination feared by many conservative communitarians. While I support the style and procedures of liberal education, I argue that we cannot excise all indoctrinating components from it by semantic, logical or epistemic analyses of what “indoctrination” or “education” means.

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Harvey, C.W. LIBERAL INDOCTRINATION AND THE PROBLEM OF COMMUNITY. Synthese 111, 115–130 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004949413665

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