(Im)Pertinent questions for the philosophy of education

Abstract

The postmodern criticism of the directions of modernity has given rise to an intense discussion over some of the basic presuppositions of the Enlightenment tradition. Among these one finds the notions of philosophy of history, of subject, and of values. We live in a troubled moment of history in which not just the philosophy of history, but also reason and subjectivity, the foundations and values, the identities and certainties, become ambiguous. The vacillation over these cornerstone concepts, that guide the thought and action of the modern man, affects life in all its dimensions. And because such concepts represent also the foundations of the educational tradition it is education in particular that finds itself before new challenges, crucial to the establishment of its objectives and practices. This article tries to signal the need of incorporating to the philosophy of education the debates that have been developed in the fields of philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics to assess both the provenance of the postmodern theses, and their possible repercussion in the field of education. It is, therefore, a question of supporting the point of view that it is no longer satisfactory to reject, as a matter of principle, the arguments of the so-called postmodern, but that we should investigate if their reading of contemporary reality is or is not justified and, in the sequence evaluate its implications for the field of educational theory and practice.