Kant on education and improvement: Themes and problems

Whilst Kant is one of the most influential figures in the history of philosophy and was also, in his own time, an important theorist of education, he is sometimes regarded with suspicion by contemporary educational theorists. His philosophy, it is often maintained, is fraught with problematic dualisms and other familiar confusions of the Enlightenment that are obstacles to cogent educational theory and liberatory pedagogical practise. At the same time, of course, there are many Kantian ideas that have informed and inspired important developments in philosophy of education, not least of all the concept of autonomy, which played a prominent role in the London School’s conception of liberal education in the 1960s and 70s and which has had ever since a vital, if contested, place in theories of educational aims and values. In this essay—a prologue to the Special Issue, Kant on Education and Improvement—we explore the enduring relevance to education of Kant’s insights on the following topics: autonomy; dignity and respect for persons; pedagogy; motivation and sensitivity; judgement; public reason; progress; and duties to self. We end by considering two significant problems in Kant’s legacy: his dreadful views of race, gender and sexuality, on the one hand, and the apparently problematic metaphysical foundations of his philosophy, on the other.