The chapter presents a philosophical defence of liberal education. It begins with a discussion of a major problem facing liberal education since the mid-twentieth century with reference to the situation in Britain. The problem takes the four forms of instrumentalism: economic, political, social, and moral or Critical Social Justice and argues that the latest form is the most pernicious to education. The second section examines Plato and Kant’s ideas of the relationship between education, knowledge, and freedom. The concluding section considers more recent accounts of liberal education to ask what guidance can be gleaned if we wish to value liberal education today.
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