What's the Good of Education? - (Bloomsbury Inquiries in Philosophy and Education) by Joseph Dunne (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An Irish Times Best Book for Summer 2025

In this book Joseph Dunne exposes the damage done by obsession with measurable outcomes in schools and universities. He argues for an education that respects the interpersonal fabric of learning and teaching, and that takes account of difficulties in late modern societies regarding childhood, citizenship, the relative prestige accorded to different kinds of knowledge, and the forging by individuals of a coherent identity across a whole life-course. To ask about good education, he claims, is necessarily to pose the larger question of the human good. Central to the book is a concern to elucidate the kind of practices that can best help persons to pursue this good, a concern that deepens through reflection in the final chapters on the challenges and fulfilments opened by the spiritual dimension of human life. Making his case in a series of inter-related essays, Dunne draws on his decades-long experience in teacher-education, informed by a reading of classical Greek philosophy and of several recent thinkers - including Raimond Gaita, Alasdair MacIntyre, Iris Murdoch and Charles Taylor - who are key conversation partners throughout.

Review Quotes

"A challenging and compelling exploration of how education can contribute to a flourishing democracy provided that our classrooms are not hijacked by tech oligarchs and bean counters." --The Irish Times' Best Books for Summer 2025

"We have a great deal to learn about education from Joe Dunne - as this book admirably bears out." --Alasdair MacIntyre, University of Notre Dame, USA

"This wonderful successor to the pathbreaking Back to the Rough Ground takes us straight to the heart of education. In his lucid and elegant prose, Dunne works through the existential and ethical questions we too often beg. These are true essays, not only discussing formation, but enacting it." --Chris Higgins, Boston College, USA

"Joseph Dunne's book is a fascinating, unique intervention in the scholarly debates over time-honoured philosophical and educational issues such as selfhood, childhood, freedom, practice, citizenship and solidarity. I started reading this book and I couldn't stop. Among its merits are its convincing and robust argumentation, its powerful and elegant prose and its insightful critical reflections. These qualities, and many more, too many to account here, render the book hospitable to readers of diverse backgrounds and sensibilities and a valuable contribution to educational-philosophical thought. Reading What's the Good of Education draws one into something better, into a philosophical world of great educational, ethical and political significance for individual flourishing and societal transformation." --Marianna Papastephanou, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

"Dunne's question is not "What is the good of this cramped and contorted thing that passes these days for education?" His question is "How might education be remade so that it genuinely serves the good of rising generations of human beings?" His reflections on this crucially important question are as profound and illuminating as any I know of." --Talbot Brewer, University of Virginia, USA

"This collection of Dunne's educational thinking is profoundly personal and yet intellectually expansive, testifiying to a lifetime devoted to educational matters. The book does more than any other to show what good philosophy of education contributes to education and culture. Readers are invited to take time to reflect anew on the astonishing processes of human formation." --David Lewin, University of Strathclyde, UK

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