Learning to Flourish: A Philosophical Exploration of Liberal Education

by Daniel R. DeNicola

What is a liberal arts education? How does it differ from other forms of learning? What are we to make of the debates that surround it? What are its place, its value, and its prospects in the contemporary world? These are questions that trouble students and their parents, educators, critics, and policy-makers, and philosophers of education--among others.

Learning to Flourish offers a lucid, penetrating, philosophical exploration of liberal a still-evolving tradition of theory and practice that has dominated and sustained intellectual life and learning in much of the globe for two millennia. This study will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand liberal arts education, as well as to educators and philosophers of education.

Daniel R. DeNicola weighs the views of both advocates and critics of the liberal arts, and interprets liberal education as a vital tradition aimed supremely at understanding and living a flourishing life. He elaborates the tradition as expressed in five competing but complementary paradigms that transcend theories of curriculum and pedagogy and are manifested in particular social contexts. He examines the transformative power of liberal education and its relation to such values as freedom, autonomy, and democracy, reflecting on the importance of intrinsic value and moral understanding. Finally, DeNicola considers age-old obstacles and current threats to liberal education, ultimately asserting its value for and urgent need in a global, pluralistic, technologically advanced society. The result is a bold, yet nuanced theory, alert to both historical and contemporary discussions, and a significant contribution to the discourse on liberal education.

Genres: Education, College

240 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2012

About the author

Daniel DeNicola is a Professor of Philosophy at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. For ten years (1996-2006), he was Provost of Gettysburg College; he then served a year as Vice President for Program Development, leading both the Eisenhower Institute and the Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning. In earlier years, he had been Provost at Rollins College, where he had also chaired the Department of Philosophy and Religion. He has held visiting appointments at Harvard University and at Lancaster University (UK). He has led a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar on John Stuart Mill.

Professor DeNicola focuses on aspects of epistemology, philosophy of education, theories of the emotions, and theoretical and applied ethics. He teaches upper division courses, such as 'Choice, Chance, Luck, and Fate'; 'Emotion'; 'Philosophy of Place'; 'Ethics & Economic Life'; and 'The Philosophy of Color'. He has twice taught the Senior Seminar in Philosophy on the topic of 'Ignorance'. Previously, he taught First-Year Seminars, such as 'Designer Genes' and the 'Ethics of Human Enhancement' and 'Secrets and Lies'. He served as Director of the Gettysburg London Seminar in 2013. Currently, he serves as Chair of the Department of Philosophy.

Reviews

[Gabriela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look for my review at http://www.edrev.info/

[Mills College Library]

370.112 D394 2012