ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the similarities between rational egoism and neoliberal educational thought. From the mid-1980s to the present day, neoliberalism has exerted a powerful influence over education and other areas of social policy in the Western world. Higher education under this model becomes a form of private investment, rather than a public good. For neoliberals the educational world should conform to the rules of the market, with choice and competition as fundamental principles. Educational decisions do not, in principle, differ from those made in a supermarket, and the reasons for making such decisions are likewise prompted by the same underlying motivation of serving one's own interests over those of others. While Notes from Underground is in part a satire, it is also a reflection of Fyodor Dostoevsky's own educational experiences. Dostoevsky identified the hidden political agenda in the pronouncements of such thinkers and asserted the fundamental importance of aesthetic form in educational development.
