Epistemology of education

Philosophical thinking about education has always been centrally concerned with epistemological matters, alongside metaphysical, moral and social/political concerns. The most basic question concerns the epistemic aims of education: what are they, and why? Candidates include truth, rational or justified belief, knowledge, understanding and the fostering of intellectual virtues. A second question concerns the roles of testimony and trust in education: should students believe their teachers’ testimonial pronouncements simply because their teachers said so? A third cluster of questions involves indoctrination: what is it? Is it avoidable? Is it always bad, or sometimes educationally appropriate? A fourth involves open-mindedness: is it possible to believe things while still being open-minded about them?