PHIL 241
Philosophy of Education: Why Are You Here?
Last Offered Spring 2007
Division II Writing Skills
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Students compete ferociously for the opportunity to pay large sums of money for the privilege of attending Williams College. The value of the educational experience they receive is usually taken to be self-evident. Less obvious, however, is the nature of education itself. What is education? Which purposes can and should it serve? Is education the sort of thing that can be “received” and, if so, how?
These questions about the nature of education are essential to philosophy, and also to the history and future of Williams College. Since the time of Plato and Aristotle philosophers have sought to determine the educational practices most conducive to human wisdom and flourishing. American liberal arts colleges offer a distinctive form of educational experience, and thus a distinctive response to the philosophical challenge to specify the optimal means of human development.
In this tutorial students will read and discuss classic texts in the philosophy of education in close conjunction with materials concerning the emergence and present practices of liberal arts colleges in America. Special attention will be paid to Williams College, and students will be encouraged to reflect upon their own educational goals and choices in light of the philosophical works that they read.