ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to identify and understand some of the common themes that undergird the educational histories and traditions of societies that have evolved and developed from the more or less common European tradition, a tradition that is, to be sure, itself extremely diverse, but also shares a kind of 'umbrella' of values and ideals that can be traced back to classical antiquity. The liberal arts curriculum has often been argued to be the core of the western educational tradition. The chapter examines the liberal arts curriculum and the concept of the 'educated person'; the nexus of reason, rationality, and science in the western tradition; literacy and the emergence of mass schooling in the west; democracy and civil liberties; and the complex relationship between the western educational tradition and Christianity. The conceptualization and justification of the liberal arts have played a key role in the philosophical debate in western educational circles about the nature and characteristics of the 'educated person'.
