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Communitarian thinkers have identified important deficiencies in liberal thought, in particular the limits of the account of justice given in liberal theories. This book makes transparent for the reader the implications that the liberal account of justice has for our ways of thinking about education. Citing the work of John Rawls as the principal expression of contemporary liberal thought, Keeney argues that there are certain intractable tensions between the view of the individual given in rights-based theories of justice and a certain valuable conception of education, which in the West has traditionally been termed a "liberal" or "general" education and concludes that ideals of a liberal education are only available to a political ethic which is capable of articulating a public conception of virtue and the good.
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LIBERALISM, COMMUNITARIANISM AND EDUCATION To Ken Arner, for his exemplary spirit of inquiry and curiousity and his astute analysis. Liberalism, Communitarianism and Education Reclaiming Liberal Education PATRICK KEENEY © Patrick Keeney 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Patrick Keeney has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Gower House Croft Road Aldershot Hampshire GU11 3HR England Ashgate Publishing Company Suite 420 101 Cherry Street Burlington, VT 05401-4405 USA Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Keeney, Patrick Liberalism, communitarianism and education : reclaiming liberal education 1.Education, Humanistic 2.Education – Philosophy 3.Social ethics I.Title 370.1’12 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Keeney, Patrick, 1955Liberalism, communitarianism, and education : reclaiming liberal education / Patrick Keeney. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7546-5397-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Education–Philosophy. 2. Education, Humanistic–Philosophy. 3. Liberalism. 4. Communitarianism. I. Title. LB14.7.K44 2006 370.11’2–dc22 2006011542 ISBN-13: 978-0-7546-5397-4 ISBN-10: 0-7546-5397-8 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire. Contents Preface Acknowledgements 1 The Nature of the Enquiry vii ix 1 2 Political Philosophy and Educational Theory 19 3 The Two Liberal Traditions 33 4 The Priority of the Right and the Transcendental Subject 45 5 The Foundations of Right: Liberalism and the Social Contract Tradition 55 6 Liberalism Without Metaphysics: John Rawls and the Moral Subject 75 7 Alasdair MacIntyre: Morality After Virture 97 8 Charles Taylor: Sources of the Modern Self 115 9 Philosophy of Education and Communitarianism 137 Bibliography Index 153 157 This page intentionally left blank Preface This book is an enquiry into the political philosophy of education, one that examines a set of debates in political theory which collectively have come to be known as the “communitarian’’ critique of liberalism. The first problem is one of definition. Anyone confronting liberalism must face the fact that it is a very big and slippery word, betokening a great many things to a great many constituencies, so I had better be clear from the start how I intend to use the word. The liberalism that is of interest to me here is that which descends to us from Kant. The last thirty years or so has brought about