ABSTRACT
We turn now to our second question: what can be said about the general position of human beings in relation to the task of learning or being educated? Our happiness, so far as education is concerned, appears to turn on whether we can enlarge and enrich our consciousness and hence enjoy life more: is such enlargement essentially unproblematic, as it is with the growth of the body by means of food and exercise, or are the difficulties more than just practical and contingent? To put it very generally: are we to assume that everything is more or less all right with human beings as learners, so that we can cheerfully go ahead and ask what particular things to be learned might be especially useful or enjoyable? Or are we rather to suppose that there is something peculiarly difficult about the whole business, which needs to be looked at first?
