Philosophy of Development

Philosophy of Development

Philosophy and Education VOLUME 8 Series Editors: C. J. B. Macmillan College ofeducation, The Florida State University, Tallahassee D. C. Phillips School ofeducation, Stanford University Editorial Board: Richard J. Bernstein, New Schoolfor Social Research, New York David W. Hamlyn, University oflondon Richard J. Shavelson, Stanford University Harvey Siegel, University ofmiami Patrick Suppes, Stanford University The titles published in this series are listed at the end ofthis volume.

Philosophy of Development Reconstructing the Foundations of Human Development and Education Edited by WOUTER VAN HAAFfEN University ofnijmegen, The Netherlands MICHIEL KORTHALS Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands and THOMAS WREN Loyola University ofchicago. U.S.A., Springer-Science+Business Media, B.Y.

A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-90-481-4770-0 ISBN 978-94-015-8782-2 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-8782-2 Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht and copyright holders as specified on appropriate pages within. Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1997. Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1997 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.

Table of contents Preface vii PART ONE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 1. Philosophy of development: an invitation Wouter van Haaften and Thomas Wren 1 2. The concept of development Woutervan Haaften 13 3. Models of human development Guy Widdershoven 31 4. Foundational development Woutervan Haaften 43 5. Reconstruction and explanation of foundational development Michiel Korthals 55 6. Evaluative claims about foundational development Woutervan Haaften 75 PART TWO THEORIES OF INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE DEVELOPMENT 7. Dimensions of individual and collective development in various domains Michiel Korthals 93 8. Cognitive development Jan Boom 101 9. Moral development Michiel Korthals 119 10. Aesthetic development Ioe de Mul 135 11. Scientific development Guy Widdershoven 153 12. Societal development Michiel Korthals 163 13. Artistic development ioe de Mul 183

vi Philosophy of development PART THREE DEVELOPMENTAND EDUCATION 14. Conceptual development and education GerSnik 15. Education and the developmentof personal autonomy GerSnik 199 211 PART FOUR PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT 16. Structuralist and hermeneutic approaches to development ios de Mul 223 17. Developmental philosophy and postmodemism Jos de Mul and Michiel Korthals 245 References Index About the authors 261 283 291

Preface Philosophy of development has as its object a broad and fascinating area of psychosocial research. It is a second order inquiry or metatheory concerned with the philosophical foundations of theories about human development and education, and its subject matter overlaps with philosophy, psychology, and education. This volume combines a broad sketch of contemporary developmental theory with detailed discussions of its central issues, in order to construct a general framework for understanding and, where appropriate, criticizing developmental theories of individual and collective development in various domains. Using this framework, we analyze a number of developmental theories, discuss the rich relations between conceptual development and education, and conclude by locating our approach in the landscape of current philosophical debate. Our main focus is what we have chosen to call "foundational development," namely those forms of human development in which what changes is the very way the relevant domain is conceived. We hope to show that when developmental theories are understood and pursued along the lines set forth in the metatheoretical analysis of our opening chapters, they provide an indispensable and fruitful approach to human development and education. Much has been achieved, but also much work remains to be done, both in deepening our understanding of the many aspects of human development, and in broadening the field in many directions. This book has been written in close cooperation by seven authors, of whom three also served as editors. Although we have tried to present the individual chapters in such a way that each can be read separately, the book is intended to be much more than a mere collection of articles. It offers a coherent albeit rather elaborate prospectus or prolegomenon that shows what a fully comprehensive philosophy of development would look like. The present book is a thoroughly revised and much expanded version of a Dutch edition published a decade ago (van Haaften, Korthals, Widdershoven, de Mul, & Snik, 1986). The authors of that volume were members of the philosophy of education research group at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Since then they have continued to work on various topics in the philosophy of development, and in the writing of the present volume have been joined by Jan Boom from Utrecht and Thomas Wren from Chicago.

viii Philosophy of development The individual chapters bear the names of the individuals primarily responsible for them. However, each chapter is actually a multi-authored work, since the other authors and the editors were intimately involved in the production of the entire book. A study of this magnitude and scope runs the risk of confounding its several levels of analysis. However, this risk was avoided, thanks especially to the efforts of Tom Wren, whose philosophical critiques, auctorial contributions, and editorial shaping of the final product are everywhere. Unlike so many multi-authored books, this one really does present a coherent argument, integrating the views of all the authors, of whom some are philosophers, some are social scientists, and all are profoundly interested in educational theory. The chapters in this book are all original essays, though some of the material has appeared in different form in several journals and books. Parts of chapter 2 appeared in Pedagogiee (van Haaften & Snik, 1994); parts of chapter 5 in Theory and Psychology (Korthals, 1994); parts of chapter 6 in the Journal of Philosophy of Education (van Haaften, 1990, 1993) and in Studies in Philosophy and Education (van Haaften & Snik, 1996); parts of chapter 10 in the Journal of Aesthetic Education (de Mul, 1988); parts of chapter 12 in Oosterling et al. (Korthals, 1990) and in Philosophy and Social Criticism (Korthals, 1993); and parts of chapter 15 in Musschenga et al. (Snik & van Haaften, 1992). Finally, we wish to extend our special thanks to Marian Bekker, who with her great expertise and devotion helped us to prepare the manuscript, often under great pressure but always with wonderfully cheerful humor, and to Jethro Zevenbergen, who very generously and expertly prepared the bibliography and the final layout of the manuscript. Wouter van Haaften Michiel Korthals Thomas Wren