263 z HOW CAN PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION BE BOTH VIABLE AND GOOD? Eric Bredo Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Policy University of Virginia Philosophy of education seems to be experiencing growing marginalization today. The glory days when John Dewey was both the foremost American philoso- pher and educational thinker are a distant memory. So is the period when virtually all education students had to take a philosophy of education course. Even the day when any decent education school had to have a philosopher or two is passing. It seems that philosophy of education is facing continued decline amid the ruins of its past greatness zyxwvu - not unlike Greece itself. The central dilemma facing the field is to find a way to be both academically good and important to practitioners, be they teachers or policy-makers. While all scholarly fields face some tension between what is required for academic legitimacy versus popular support, this tension seems particularly severe for philosophy of education due to differencesbetween the two fields it links. Philosophy tends to be abstract and removed from practice, while education tends to be practical and suspicious of abstraction. The great difference in their status also does not help because it makes it painful for those in one field to associate with thosein the other. As a result of these tensions, philosophy of education is all-too-often either philosophically good and irrelevant to practitioners, or practically relevant but philosophically weak. Even worse, it is sometimes weak in both respects. But is it really impossible to be both philosophically good and practically viable? Over theyears many have suggestedhow both sets of demands might be met, Dewey among them. Now Renk Arcilla proposes yet another way for the field to evade the horns of its central dilemma and save itself from extincti0n.l Before considering Arcilla’s proposal, however, let me place it in context by reviewing some recent history of the issue, for the way the tension is understood has itself changed. THE ANALYTIC/~ONTINENTAL WARS In a 1983 article, “Philosophy of Education: In Extremis?” Denis Phillips stated the central dilemma of the field, much as I have above, by using a quotation from Woody Allen: More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.2 1. Rene Vincente Arcilla, “Why Aren‘t Philosophers and Educators Speaking to Each Other!” zyx Educational Theory 52, no. 1 [Winter 2002), 8. This article will be cited as PE in the text for all subsequent references. 2. Woody Allen, “My Speech to Graduates,” quoted in D.C. Phillips, “Philosophy of Education: In Extremis!” Educational Studies 14, no. 1 (Spring 1983): 1. EDUCATIONAL THEORY / Summer 2002 / Volume 52 / Number 3 zyx 0 2002 Board of Trustees / University of Illinois