EDD 5229
Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society
Lecture 4
Understanding the Meaning of Liberal Studies:
A Historical Account
A. Understanding the Meanings of Liberal Studies in HKSAR
1. The myth of Liberal Studies in language game of HKSAR education reform
a. Liberal Studies as the panacea of education in knowledge society
b. Liberal Studies as disaster in HKSAR education reform
2. Confusion of connotations of liberal studies
a. Liberal Studies
b. Liberal education
c. General Education
d. Liberal Arts Education
B. Ideas of Liberal Education in Historical Context
1. The origins of liberal education can be traced to the Ancient Greece in B.C.
a. Artes liberals in Greek means liberal arts
b. Liberal art was understood as an education ideal underlining the idea of
liberalis in Greek. It means “relating to freedom” or “fitted for freedom”.
c. Accordingly, liberal art education was understood as “education for free
citizens” in the city-state of Ancient Greece.
d. However, in the political context of the Ancient Greece, which was built on a
social system of slavery, liberal art education was in fact simply meant
“education of free citizens with leisure to study” (Kimball, 1986, p.14)
e. Nevertheless, the idea of liberal arts education found in the writings of Plato
and Aristotle carries a more profound meaning. It signifies the educational
ideal that it is an education to free individuals rather than simply education for
eligible free individuals. According to Aristotle, liberal arts education is defined
as a means to elevate human mind minds to self-reflective level. “The
unexamined life is not worth living for human being.” (Aristotle, quoted in
Nussbaum, 1997, p. 8)
2. The idea of trivium and quadrium in 5th and sixth century
During the Roman Empire in 5th to sixth century, liberal arts education indicated a
curriculum consisted of seven arts. They can further be divided into “trivium” and
“quadrivium”
a. Trivium was made up of grammar, logic and rhetoric. They constituted the
lower division of university studies in the Middle Age
b. Quadrivium composed arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. They
constituted the upper division of university studies in the Middle Age.
Nevertheless, liberal arts education in this period was still confined to be
education for the eligible few, i.e. Roman citizens.
3. Liberal education in the Enlightenment in the 18th century
a. Liberal education as the Enlightenment
i. According to Immanuel Kant definition, “Enlightenment is man’s release
from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man’s inability to make use of
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his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this
tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution
and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere aude (Dare to
know)! “Have courage to use your own reason!” - that is the motto of
enlightenment.
ii. In connection to ideal of the Enlightenment, liberal education in the 18th
century took on an egalitarian meaning. It is the liberating and enlightening
education for all human being and every human being is entitled to the
“reasoning power.”
b. Liberal education as part of the “project of modernity”
i. Jürgen Habermas' formulation of the project of modernity as collective
efforts of human kinds, especially those in Europe in the 18th century
bearing the consequences of :
- Differentiating the holistic reason of religion and metaphysics of
Christianity in Europe before the 18th century into autonomous sphere of
science, morality and art in the Modern Times
- Constituting of separate areas of inquiry: Knowledge and truth, justice
and moral-rightness, and taste, authenticity and beauty
- Developing of the cognitive-instrumental, moral-practical and
aesthetic-expressive rationality
- Institutionalizing of domains of culture: scientific discourse, theories of
moral and jurisprudence, and production and criticism of art.
ii. It is in the context of modernity that liberal education invokes it modern
meanings
- To liberate human mind from religion and superstition and lead it into
scientific reasoning and practice
- To liberate human mind from social and political tutelage and
suppression and lead it into democratic reasoning and practice
- To liberate human mind from aesthetic domination and hegemony and
lead it into free and creative expressions of self
iii. However, the separation and division of human reason into separate
domains and then institutions have sowed the seed of the degradation of
the liberal education ideal in modern schooling system in the twenty
century.
4. The debate between general education and specialized education
a. Max Weber’s thesis of division of labor and specialization of education
i. Industrialization and bureaucratization elicit complex division of labor in
production process
ii. Fragmentation of skills and knowledge
iii. System of knowledge was divided into separate disciplines
iv. Constitution of regular curricula and standardized examination within each
discipline
b. Liberal arts collages of unified and integrated curriculum gave way to modern
research and teaching universities with strict division of departments by
academic disciplines.
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c. The publication of General Education in a Free Society (1945) by the Harvard
Committee:
In response to the ever growing division of disciplines and departments, most
of the traditional university must find a way to sustain their educational ideal of
liberal arts education. The remedy that Harvard University came up with in
1945 is to establish a cross-department program for students of all
departments and majors. The aim of the General Education program is to
inculcate “liberated minds” of all Harvard graduates. The “traits” of a “liberate
minds” according to the “Red Book” (the abbreviation for General Education in
a Free Society), are: (Pp. 64-87)
i. Effective thinking: It consist of the ability of logical thinking, relational
thinking and imaginative thinking
ii. Effective communication: “The effective communication depends on the
possession not only of skills such as clear thinking and cogent expression
but of moral qualities as well, such as candor.” (p. 68)
iii. Making of relevant judgments:
iv. Discrimination of values
5. The debate on the required course of Western civilization in Stanford University in
the 1980s
a. The issue of the “Core Reading List” for the year-long required course
b. The list was criticized as ethnocentric in several terms, i.e. Eurocentric,
male-centric and Christain-centric.
c. The outcome of the debate is the input of sensitivity and reflectivity to
multiculturalism into the curriculum of nurturing liberated minds
d. Accordingly, Martha C. Nussbaum (1997) redefined the “trait of the liberated
mind” into
i. Critical self-examination: “The capacity for critical examination of oneself
and one’s traditions.” (p. 9)
ii. World citizen: “An ability to see themselves not simply as citizens of some
local region and group but also, and above all, as human being bound to all
other human beings by ties of recognition and concern.” (p.10)
iii. Narrative imagination: “The ability to think what it might be like to be in th
shoes of a person different from oneself, to be an intelligent reader of that
person’s story, and to understand the emotions and wish and desires that
someone so placed might be.” (p. 10-11) In other words, it is the ability of
sympathetic understand and sympathetic imagination.
6. To summarized, the ideas of liberal studies embedded three conflicting themes in
its educational objects
a. Elitism vs. universalism: Liberating the minds of a selected few or those of the
general public and structural contradiction between slave or federal society
and free society
b. General education vs. specialized education: Structural contradiction between
gentry and literati education in agrarian society and specialist education in
industrial society
c. Ethno-cultural and nationalistic education vs. multicultural and cosmopolitan
education: Structural contradiction between nationalistic ethno-cultural
education and global multicultural education
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C. Liberal Education in Knowledge Society
1. Definition of the problem
“Four trend have changed the problem of liberal education beyond recognition in
recent decades:
a. knowledge is growing so rapidly and uncontrollably that the very idea of an
‘all-round’ (or ‘general’) education is coming to seem unfeasible;
b. nonetheless, it seems increasingly obvious that knowledge skills of some kind
are essential in a society where ‘knowledge work’ has become the most
productive and highly remunerated kind of work;
c. moreover, it seems clear that these knowledge skills, whatever they are, can’
t be confined to an elite, but must be imparted to everyone;
d. in a pluralist society, the old classical model of learning knowledge skills
(illustrated for example by European elite education) is challenged by some
groups in society who reject the culture in which such education has been
embedded.” (Smith, 2002, p. 1)
2. Redefinition of the educated and liberated mind
a. Educated mind is perceived as container of educational knowledge and
liberated mind as container of liberating knowledge
b. Following the development of cognitive science, mind is perceived as network
processing knowledge, information and data
c. Liberal education, especially in the knowledge age and/or society, is defined as
an effort of enculturation into what Karl Popper termed World 3.
d. According to Popper’s classification:
i. World 1 consists of the knowledge of the physical world
ii. World 2 consists of the knowledge of the subjective and mental world
iii. World 3 “is …the world of ideas. It consists of immaterial knowledge
objects that can be discussed, modified, replaced and so on.” (Bereiter,
2002, p.27) It consists of the “discussible proposition or declarative
knowledge theories, conjectures, problem formulations, historical
accounts, interpretations, proofs, criticism, and the like.” (Bereiter, 2002, p.
29) It basically coincides with the conception of meta-cognitive knowledge
or knowledge of intentional cognition. More generally speaking, it is the
knowledge of knowledge-building and knowledgability.
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