ABSTRACT
First, a philosophical argument in the history of political philosophy and educational ideas has sought to recover some understanding of the nature and influence of the Isocratic tradition in international educational thought. At the foundation of the apparent historical diversity of educational thought and practice is a more fundamental continuity of educational thought in the form of the presupposition of the Isocratic idea of the subordinate nature of education and doctrinal conditional deduction (DCD). By presupposing that education is an essentially political enterprise, teachers and education-ists relegate themselves to a subordinate and ultimately irrelevant position in the formulation of all of the normative principles and goals of education. Finally to recover some understanding of the alternative Parmenidean-Platonic idea of the nature and the P+P method for determining and justifying the goals and value of autonomous education, and to suggest that recovery of it can diversify normative debate about the goals and value of education.
