Defending the Need for a Foundational Epistemic Capability in Education

The paper takes up Sen’s concerns with education on the one hand and public reasoning on the other, and shows that his concerns require that formal education develop a capability that potentially fosters inclusive public reasoning in all students. Drawing on and extending Miranda Fricker’s work, and informed by a global South positionality and empirical research, the argument is made for an epistemic capability that includes attention to the cognitive and knowledge but also to a domain of sharing and giving values. How this capability can be fostered and how it can also be thwarted is discussed. Finally, a concern with how an adequate living standard underpins this epistemic capability and the goodness of an educational life that a student can lead is considered. Overall, the paper argues that education—and fostering an epistemic capability—can make a crucial contribution to inclusive reasoning and democratic participation in a (more) just society.

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