Isocrates is one of the most remarkable and influential figures in the history of human thought. The influence of his ideas in the history of historical writing, rhetoric, the visual arts, music, religion and theology, political science, philosophy and, above all, educational philosophy and practice in Europe, Australia, North America, North Africa, and the Middle East are well established and widely known.

This book argues careful study of the educational philosophy of Isocrates and its legacy can contribute to an improved understanding of the historiography of educational thought, his distinctive normative methodology in both political and educational philosophy, and his arguments about the primary importance of the virtues of self-knowledge and realistic self-appraisal for educational philosophers and practitioners.

At a time when educational philosophy has an increasingly precarious academic existence and educationists are actively seeking new historiographical and methodological approaches to the philosophical study of education, there is much to be gained by recovering and reevaluating the historiography and normative methodology of Isocrates and the role they play in educational discourse and practice today.

Autorentext

Donna Riley is a founding faculty member and Associate Professor in the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College, where she has been teaching thermodynamics for over 10 years. She received her B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. Her technical research combines methods in engineering and the social sciences to characterize and communicate chemical risk. She seeks to integrate quantitative modeling of chemical risks (from sources to exposure endpoints) with an understanding of the ways in which human beliefs and behavior influence risk. Past projects have involved characterizing the risks of mercury use as part of religious and folk traditions in Latino and Caribbean communities, and developing improved consumer-product warnings. She is currently collaborating with chemists at Smith and the University of Massachusetts on developing a community-oriented air quality research lab. In 2005 Riley received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for implementing pedagogies of liberation, based on the work of Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and others, into engineering education. Aspects of critical pedagogies that are operationalized in Riley's classrooms include connecting course material to student experience, emphasizing students as authorities in the classroom, integrating ethics and policy considerations in the context of social justice, problematizing science as objectivity, and incorporating contributions from women, people of color, and people living in the global South.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. Isocrates and the History of Educational Ideas: Deficiencies of Educationist Historiography.- Chapter 2. First Philosophy in Educational Thought: The Four Questions and Two Methods.- Chapter 3. Against the Sophists: the First Virtues of the Educator and the Limits of Education.