The Main Enterprise of the World: Rethinking Education

"Education ought to be central to our lives - it should be, in Ralph Waldo Emerson's phrase, "the main enterprise of the world." In its broadest sense, education aims at three goals: to enable people to support themselves, to enable them to function as citizens, and to find fulfilment. In our times, changing features of the workplace environment provide opportunities to focus on the latter two goals, and to liberate education from supposed economic constraints. By doing so, we can improve the lives of individuals, and build more solid foundations for democracy. Philip Kitcher's humanistic vision of educational reform is not, however, divorced from the realities of contemporary life nor doomed by any conflict with sound economics. After an accessible discussion of central philosophical questions, he examines the content of the curriculum, the social changes required if a fully adequate education is to be provided to all, and considers how the proposals can be reconciled with financial stability. The Main Enterprise of the World renews classical Pragmatism: with one eye on the ideal, and the other on the world, it presents a picture of education appropriate for our century"--