Kant and the Socio-Politics of Education

Abstract

This presentation explores the wider context of Kant's approach to education. Whilst much has been made of his writings on moral (or cosmopolitan) education – Louden, Cavallar, Auweele, Cohen, Donath, Giesenger, Moran, Munzel and many others have written in some detail on this area – far less consideration has been given to the other forms of education also implicit, and indeed explicit, in his works: education for women, education for the masses, and education for the non-cosmopolitan elite. This presentation picks up the threads of these, and attempts to set out how they relate to his arguments on the socio-politics of the white and western nation-state. In essence, what role do all of these different types of education play in the formation and propagation of his cosmopolitan vision?