Philosophy, Dialogue, and Education

Book excerpt: Philosophy, Dialogue, and Education is an advanced introduction to nine key European social philosophers: Martin Buber, Mikhail Bakhtin, Lev Vygotsky, Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Simone Weil, Michael Oakeshott, and Jürgen Habermas. This detailed yet highly readable work positions the socio-political views of each philosopher within a European tradition of dialogical philosophy; and reflects on the continuing theoretical relevance of the work of each to education generally and to critical pedagogy. The discussion in each chapter is informed by materials drawn from various scholarly sources in English and is enriched by materials from other languages, particularly French, German, and Russian. This enhances the comparative European cultural perspective of the book; and connects the work of each philosopher to wider intellectual, political, and social debates. The book will appeal to academics, postgraduates, and researchers working in philosophy, philosophy of education, and in educational, cultural, and social studies more generally. Advanced undergraduate students would also benefit from the book’s discussion of primary sources and the authors’ suggestions for further reading.