Philosophy and the aims of higher education

ABSTRACT

The paper asks how far philosophy can throw light on what the aims of higher education should be. It begins with a critical discussion of Ronald Barnett's argument, set out in his The Idea of Higher Education and elsewhere, that there are common ‘emancipatory’ aims implicit in the concept of higher education itself. Barnett's philosophical and historical arguments for this conclusion are examined and rejected. The question is also raised whether the conclusion could be supported on other grounds. In the last part of the paper it is suggested that higher education seems to offer much less scope than compulsory school education for philosophical discussions of its aims.