Liberal Democracy and Liberal Education

(Hardback)

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The essays in this book reflect on the paradoxical relationship of liberal education and liberal democracy. Liberal education emphasizes knowledge for its own sake, detached from all instrumental purposes. It also aims at liberation from the manifold sources of unfreedom, including political sources. In this sense, liberal education is negative, questioning any and all constraints on the activity of mind. Liberal democracy, devoted to securing individual natural rights, purports to be the regime of liberty par excellence. Since both liberal education and liberal democracy aim to set individuals free, they would seem to be harmonious and mutually reinforcing. But there are reasons to doubt that liberal education can be the civic education liberal democracy needs. If liberal education is in tension with all instrumental purposes, how does it stand toward the goal of preparing the kind of citizens liberal democracy needs The books contributors are critical of the way higher education typically interprets its responsibility for educating citizens, and they link those failures to academias neglect of certain founding principles of the American political tradition and of the traditional liberal arts ideal.

Reviews

Dan Cullen's excellent and timely new book on liberal education includes some of the most provocative and thoughtful thinkers of our timeBill McClay, Robby George, John Agrestowho tackle the tough question about how free education should be in a free society. Can it, should it, tell the truth Going against the grain of political correctness in America today, they insist on telling the truth, and they hold out good hope that the nation and its citizens will be the better for it. -- Colleen Sheehan, Villanova University
Daniel Cullen has assembled some of Americas leading thinkers on liberal democracy and liberal education to consider an old but still pressing question: what type of education is suited to a free people such that they might enjoy, and maintain, their freedom The contributions are fascinating on their own terms, and they interact with one another in surprisingly fresh ways. Essential reading for anyone who cares about the formation of democratic citizens. -- Bradley C. S. Watson, Saint Vincent College

Author Bio

Daniel E. Cullen is professor of political science at Rhodes College