Liberal Education: The United States Example
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Description
Anthony Appiah’s essay on liberal education in the United States begins by identifying a distinctive feature of classical liberalism—namely, that the state must respect substantial limits with respect to its authority to impose restrictions on individuals, even for their own good. Nevertheless, Appiah points out, the primary aim of liberal education is to ‘maximize autonomy not to minimize government involvement’. Most of the essays in this volume, including Appiah’s, are attempts to address the question of what the liberal commitment to maximize personal autonomy means when it comes to the teaching of what Appiah refers to as ‘identity-related claims’. The aim of this chapter is to suggest how one might begin to think about some questions in the philosophy of education, guided by the liberal thought that education is a preparation for autonomy, and to show that this tradition is both powerful enough to help with this difficult question and rich enough to allow answers of some complexity.
Source Publication
Citizenship and Education in Liberal-Democratic Societies: Teaching for Cosmopolitan Values and Collective Identities
Source Editors/Authors
Kevin McDonough, Walter Feinberg
Publication Date
2003
Recommended Citation
Appiah, Kwame Anthony, "Liberal Education: The United States Example" (2003). Faculty Chapters. 117.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/117
