The Condition of American Liberal Education: Pragmatism and a Changing Tradition. An Essay with Commentaries and Responses.

Overview & Synopsis

This book presents an essay on U.S. liberal education and 24 commentaries on it. The essay, "Toward Pragmatic Liberal Education" by Bruce A. Kimball suggests that a consensus is emerging in reform efforts that a new and distinctly American version of liberal education is emerging which owes much to the current resurgence of American pragmatic thought. The second part of the book consists of commentaries on Kimball's essay. These include: "Possibilities for Remaking Liberal Education at the Century's End" (Stanley N. Katz); "Historical Perspective and Our Current Educational Discontents" (Francis Oakley); "Marketing Postmodernism" (Louis Menand); "Knowledge, America, and Liberal Education" (Julie Thompson Klein); "Pragmatic Missions and the Struggle for Liberal Education in State Colleges and Universities" (June K. Phillips); "Pragmatism Won't Save Us But It Can Help" (Richard M. Freeland); "Pragmatism, Liberal Education, and Multiculturalism: Utilizing the Master's Tools' To Restructure the Master's House' for Diversity" (Shirley Hune); "Four Appreciative Queries" (Eva T. H. Brann); "On the Purposes' of Liberal Education" (W.B. Carnochan); "Response to Bruce Kimball's Toward Pragmatic Liberal Education'" (Edmund W. Gordon); "After Pragmatism, What?" (Nicholas H. Farnham); "Pragmatism: Plausible or Panacean?" (John H. Morrow, Jr.); "Seeking Pragmatic Essentialism" (Douglas W. Foard); "Pragmatism, Liberal Education, and the Transformation of Knowing" (Douglas Sloan); "Pragmatism, Scientific Method, and Liberal Education" (Sandra B. Rosenthal); "Wishful Thinking: On the Convergence of Pragmatism and Liberal Education" (Robert B. Westbrook); "Funeral Rites" (David M. Steiner); "Needed: A Pedagogy Please!" (Thomas F. Green); "No Consensus in Sight" (Alan Ryan); "Because I Like the Questions" (Arturo Madrid); "Prognostication and Doubt" (Ellen T. Harris); "Reckoning versus Reasoning: A Struggle for the Soul of Mathematics" (Susan L. Forman and Lynn Arthur Steen); and "The Educated Person, Curriculum Content Standards, and Pragmatic Liberal Education" (Miles Myers). An index is included. (DB)