1st Edition
The Legacy of Isocrates and a Platonic Alternative Political Philosophy and the Value of Education
Bringing together the history of educational philosophy, political philosophy, and rhetoric, this book examines the influence of the philosopher Isocrates on educational thought and the history of education. Unifying philosophical and historical arguments, Muir discusses the role of Isocrates in raising two central questions: What is the value of education? By what methods ought the value of education to be determined? Tracing the historical influence of Isocrates’ ideas of the nature and value of education from Antiquity to the modern era, Muir questions normative assumptions about the foundations of education and considers the future status of education as an academic discipline.
Introduction
Part 1: Isocrates’ Idea of the Nature and Value of Education
Chapter 1: Isocrates and the history of education: educationists vs. everyone else
Chapter 2: The Isocratic Idea of the Nature and Value of Education
Part 2: The Historical Transmission and Evolution of the Isocratic Idea of Education
Ch. 3: The Isocratic Idea: Rome to the Early Middle Ages
Ch. 4: The Isocratic Idea in the Middle Ages
Ch. 5: The Isocratic Idea in Renaissance Humanism
Ch. 6: Education and Modern Political Philosophy
Part 3: Critique of the Isocratic Idea and Outline of the Parmenidean-Platonic Alternative
Ch. 7: The Inadequacy of the Isocratic Idea and DCD Method
Ch. 8: the Parmenidean-Platonic Alternative I: Normative Method and Education
Ch. 9: the Parmenidean-Platonic Alternative II: an Outline of Educational Practice
Conclusion
References
Biography
James Muir is Professor of Philosophy at University of Winnipeg, Canada.
