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Practical Knowledge and Habits of Mind
Author(s) -
SMALL WILL
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.12423
Subject(s) - habit , epistemology , psychology , cognition , self knowledge , critical thinking , cognitive science , social psychology , pedagogy , philosophy , neuroscience
Education aims not only at transmitting knowledge of facts, but also at the inculcation of abilities and propensities. We hope that students acquire not merely the ability to, e.g. think critically, but the propensity or habit of doing so—that critical thinking will be something they do do, not something they merely can do; that they will become, not merely capable of inquiry, but inquisitive; and so on. If education aims at more than the transmission of propositional knowledge, are these other aims non‐cognitive, or non‐epistemic? This essay aims to make progress on this question by critically examining Rylean conceptions of skill and habit, thereby making room for a neglected category, intelligent habit .