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Dowling College           Professor Christian Perring

PHL 4181A Seminar: Philosophy of Education CRN: 27485

Spring 2004

MW 1:00-2:20PM

 

Classroom:

Office Hours: MTW 4:00-5:30PM or by appointment

Phone: 244-3349

E-mail: perringc@dowling.edu [Please put "PHL4181" in the subject line for your email make sure your message contains your first and last names.]

 

We will also use some of the services available on Blackboard, at http://webclasses.dowling.edu

 

Text: Steven Cahn.  Classic and Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Education (McGraw Hill, 1997)

 

The aim of this seminar is to investigate the proper aims of education and the role of education in democratic society.  We will discuss both classic and contemporary works.  Students will write a 5-page paper, a 15-page paper, and a take-home exam.  As a seminar, it is essential that students do the reading ahead of time and come to class ready to discuss the ideas. 

 

Week 1

Plato: "Meno," "Protagoras"

Week 2

Plato: "The Republic"

Week 3

Aristotle: "Nicomachean Ethics,"

Week 4

Aristotle: "Politics"

Week 5

John Locke: "Some Thoughts Concerning Education"

Week 6

Jean Jacques Rousseau: "Emile"

Week 7

Immanuel Kant: "Thoughts on Education"

John Stuart Mill: "Inaugural Address at St. Andrews"

Week 8

John Dewey: "The Child and the Curriculum," "Democracy and Education," "Experience and Education"

Week 9

Michael Walzer: "Spheres of Justice"

Amy Gutmann: "Democratic Education"

Week 10

Paul H. Hirst: "What is Teaching?"

Jacques Maritain: "Education at the Crossroads"

Week 11

Paulo Freire: "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"

Nel Noddings: "Caring"

Gareth B. Matthews: "The Philosophy of Childhood"

Week 12

Sidney Hook: "Education for Modern Man"

Jane Roland Martin: "Two Dogmas of Curriculum"

Maxine Greene: "The Passion of Pluralism: Multiculturalism and the Expanding Community"

Week 13

Richard Rorty: "Hermeneutics, General Studies, and Teaching"

John R. Searle: "Traditionalists and Their Challengers"