Education, autonomy and critical thinking / Christopher Winch.

First published in 2006.Transferred to Digital Printing 2009.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [190]-196) and index.

Introduction : Autonomy and education -- Authority and rational autonomy -- Critical rationality -- The development of critical rationality in a practical context -- Critical thinking and context independence -- Autonomy and the self -- Autonomy and conceptions of the good -- Autonomy and the polity -- Autonomy and schooling -- Autonomy, the difference principle and educational resources -- Autonomy and civic education -- Education and the balanced life -- Policy implications.

"Education, Autonomy and Critical Thinking assesses the significance of our concern with critical rationality as a key intellectual component of a worthwhile life involving autonomy, and our views as to what critical thinking is and how it can be cultivated. The book builds on modern liberal political theory and work in the philosophy of education concerning the aims of liberal education. Christopher Winch draws on discussions on epistemology and the philosophy of language on the nature of rationality to produce a critique of the concepts of autonomy and critical thinking which are central to contemporary philosophy of education."--BOOK JACKET.