Introduction

This chapter discusses the transfer of philosophical knowledge and/or skills as content-orientated learning in the form of providing a historic description of the philosophy of education. History has shown that totalitarian regimes often utilise education for other purposes than educating a critical and autonomous individual. The functional similarity of societal educational efforts opens up the puzzle of having to decide where to draw the line between legitimate educational efforts and illegitimate indoctrination. The link between practice and theory is a genuine philosophical problem as it is important to establish a valid link between the particular of everyday practice and empirical research on one side and the general of theories. Arie Kizel proposes, with recourse to Mathew Lipman, an educational, transformational engagement with students to form a critical, true seedbed for democracy in the form of a philosophical laboratory. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.