Abstract

One hopes from the philosophy of education a general theory of the curriculum together with a deductively related batch of specific theories for designing each portion of a curriculum. This anthology of nineteen reprints sheds little light on the general problem, but it does gather under one roof a handy collection of articles relevant to an understanding of some of the problems of specific curriculum decision-making. The authors are concerned with the intellectual content of the curriculum, which they reasonably divide into the general disciplines of the formal sciences, the physical and natural sciences, history and the social sciences, literature and the arts, and philosophy. Within each discipline we get a string of philosophical discussions of the structure and methodology of that discipline. Thus, within one volume we have a bit of the philosophy of logic and mathematics--e.g., a paper on necessary truth, a paper on foundations; a bit of the philosophy of science--e.g., Ernest Nagel's "Teleological Explanation and Teleological Systems"; a bit of aesthetics; a bit of metaphilosophy--e.g., Friedrich Waismann's "How I See Philosophy"; and so on. But this by itself can only give us a philosophy of the intellectual disciplines. It cannot by itself provide us with a philosophy of the curriculum. The authors do provide us with two papers on the curriculum, including a very stimulating piece by G. C. Fields--"The Teaching of Philosophy." One could hope for more. Sadly there are few such papers to choose from.--J. F.