Joseph Dunne

In this book Joseph Dunne exposes the damage done by obsession with measurable outcomes in schools and universities. He argues for an education that respects the interpersonal fabric of learning and teaching, and that takes account of difficulties in late modern societies regarding childhood, citizenship, the relative prestige accorded to different kinds of knowledge, and the forging by individuals of a coherent identity across a whole life-course. To ask about good education, he claims, is necessarily to pose the larger question of the human good. Central to the book is a concern to elucidate the kind of practices that can best help persons to pursue this good, a concern that deepens through reflection in the final chapters on the challenges and fulfilments opened by the spiritual dimension of human life. Making his case in a series of inter-related essays, Dunne draws on his decades-long experience in teacher-education, informed by a reading of classical Greek philosophy and of several recent thinkers – including Raimond Gaita, Alasdair MacIntyre, Iris Murdoch and Charles Taylor – who are key conversation partners throughout.

Back to the Rough Ground is a philosophical investigation of practical knowledge, with major import for professional practice and the ethical life in modern society. Its purpose is to clarify the kind of knowledge that informs good practice in a range of disciplines such as education, psychotherapy, medicine, management, and law. Through reflection on key modern thinkers who have revived cardinal insights of Aristotle, and a sustained engagement with the Philosopher himself, it presents a radical challenge to the scientistic assumptions that have dominated how these professional domains have been conceived, practiced, and institutionalized.

Back to the Rough Ground is a philosophical investigation of practical knowledge, with major import for professional practice and the ethical life in modern society. Its purpose is to clarify the kind of knowledge that informs good practice in a range of disciplines such as education, psychotherapy, medicine, management, and law. Through reflection on key modern thinkers who have revived cardinal insights of Aristotle, and a sustained engagement with the Philosopher himself, it presents a radical challenge to the scientistic assumptions that have dominated how these professional domains have been conceived, practiced, and institutionalized.