Abstract
Even though MacIntyre (1981/2007) is critical of what he calls the “Enlightenment project” in After Virtue, there is much in the Enlightenment that he thinks we should emulate, particularly in education. As I have already outlined in earlier chapters of this book, there is much from the Enlightenment that MacIntyre admires, especially how philosophers of the Enlightenment, such as Hegel, Marx, and so on open-our-eyes to the importance of cultivating rationality in and through a democratic culture of critical enquiry to remake both society and ourselves for the purposes of a particular kind of community. Indeed, MacIntyre’s commitment to certain Enlightenment ideals are continued and extended on in more detail throughout his extensive corpus; however, in this case my focus in this chapter will intentionally turn to what I am calling his “Enlightenment educational ideal”. In “The Idea of an Educated Public” (MacIntyre, 1987), and other subsequent works, MacIntyre’s commitment to an Enlightenment educational ideal is made known and embodied through an “educated public”. Therefore, for the purposes of this chapter I will be concerned with the discussion the following: first, I outline in detail MacIntyre’s commitment to an Enlightenment educational ideal, particularly its role in the cultivation of independent enlightened thinkers; second, I provide an account of MacIntyre’s theory of rational vindication because it serves as the foundation of his educational project; and lastly, I pick-up-on MacIntyre’s advocacy concerning the revitalisation of an educated public and the role universities should play in contemporary society as a place of controversy and constrained disagreement.
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Notes
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This lecture was delivered at the Institute of Education, University of London in 1985.
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See Chapter 2 of this book titled, MacIntyre’s Restoration of Rationality: The Essence of Human Nature Is Reason.
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For a discussion of whether rival educational traditions referred to as “instrumental” and “non-instrumental” can be rationally resolved using MacIntyre’s framework, and a shared meaning of education is possible. See my paper titled, “MacIntyre, rival traditions and education” (Stolz, 2016).
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MacIntyre’s account of a liberal education owes much to Newman’s (1852/2009) account found in The Idea of a University. MacIntyre (2009) in God, Philosophy, Universities acknowledges Newman as someone who has influenced his thinking on education, particularly a university education. Accordingly, Newman saw a liberal education as being: (1) pursuing knowledge for its own sake; (2) broadly based student experiences (rather than narrowly specialised); and, (3) the development of autonomous individuals.
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MacIntyre provides other reasons why Thomism rationally defeats the other two rival traditions, however, space restrictions have limited any opportunity for me to provide a detailed account of this work in this section. For more detail, see the following: chapter VIII titled, “Tradition Against Encyclopaedia: Enlightened Morality as the Superstition of Modernity”, and chapter IX titled, “Tradition Against Genealogy: Who Speaks to Whom?” from Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry (MacIntyre, 1990a). For other works that deal with MacIntyre’s Thomistic Aristotelian point of view, see the following: “Rival Aristotles: Aristotles Against Some Renaissance Aristotelians”, “Rival Aristotles: Aristotle Against Some Modern Aristotelians”, “Natural Law as Subversive: the Case of Aquinas”, and “Aquinas and the Extent of Moral Disagreement” from Ethics and Politics (MacIntyre, 2006a, b, c, d).
References
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Stolz, S.A. (2019). MacIntyre’s Enlightenment Educational Ideal: Cultivating Rationality and Contemporary Discourse Through Controversy and Constrained Disagreement. In: Alasdair MacIntyre, Rationality and Education. SpringerBriefs in Education(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92276-8_3
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