On the Worthwhileness of Theoretical Activities

Journal of Philosophy of Education 43 (supplement s1):109-121 (2009)
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Abstract

R.S. Peters' arguments for the worthwhileness of theoretical activities are intended to justify education per se, on the assumption that education is necessarily a matter of initiating people into theoretical activities. If we give up this assumption, we can ask whether Peters' arguments might serve instead to justify the academic curriculum over other curricular arrangements. For this they would need to show that theoretical activities are not only worthwhile but, in some relevant sense, more worthwhile than activities of other kinds. I argue that Peters' hedonistic and transcendental arguments do not show this, but that his account of theoretical activities is suggestive of an instrumental argument which might fit the bill.

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Author's Profile

Michael Hand
University of Birmingham

References found in this work

Ethics and education.Richard Stanley Peters - 1966 - London,: Allen & Unwin.
Ethics and Education.A. J. D. Porteous - 1967 - British Journal of Educational Studies 15 (1):75.
The philosophy of education.Richard Stanley Peters - 1973 - [London]: Oxford University Press.
Authority and education.R. S. Peters - 1966 - Ethics and Education 237:265.
Towards a Compulsory Curriculum.J. P. White - 1974 - British Journal of Educational Studies 22 (2):207-208.

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