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Rawls, Race, and Education: A Challenge to the Ideal/Nonideal Divide
Author(s) -
Thompson Winston C.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
educational theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1741-5446
pISSN - 0013-2004
DOI - 10.1111/edth.12104
Subject(s) - ideal (ethics) , sociology , ideal theory , education theory , race (biology) , epistemology , economic justice , critical race theory , law , higher education , mathematics , political science , gender studies , philosophy , commutative ring , commutative property , pure mathematics
In this essay, Winston C. Thompson questions the rigidity of the boundary between ideal and nonideal theory, suggesting a porosity that allows elements of both to be brought to bear upon educational issues in singularly incisive ways. In the service of this goal, Thompson challenges and extends John Rawls's theory of justice as fairness, bringing it to bear upon education in our imperfect world. By showing that this representative work of ideal theory can be meaningfully supplemented and applied to the nonideal fact of race, this essay suggests that recognition of nonideal circumstances and theorizing need not void ideal theory's value to philosophy of education. Instead, the field can engage both ideal and nonideal theory on previously unavailable questions and dimensions of educational justice toward productive ends.