Showing and Doing

by Michael A. Peters, Nicholas C. Burbules, Paul Smeyers

Three prominent Wittgenstein scholars introduce the broad educational significance of Ludwig Wittgenstein's work to a wider audience of educational researchers and practitioners through provocative, innovative, and playful readings of his work. They vividly demonstrate the influence of his thinking and its centrality to understanding our contemporary condition. Wittgenstein fundamentally shaped contemporary theories of language, representation, cognition, and learning. The book also traces the "pedagogical turn" of his thinking during the period from 1920 to 1926. What is most radical about Wittgenstein's later work is that it suggests learning and initiation into practices are fundamental to understanding his philosophy. The book not only provides a new and fresh interpretation of Wittgenstein's thought but also explores a new way of thinking about education as a way of revealing the educational dimension of philosophical problems.

264 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2007

About the author

Michael A Peters is Distinguished Professor at Beijing Normal University, China, and Emritus Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He remains attached to the University of Waikato as a research professor affiliate in the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research. He was professor of Education at the University of Waikato for seven years (2011-2018).

He is the executive editor of the journal, Educational Philosophy and Theory, and editor of three international ejournals, Policy Futures in Education, E-Learning and Digital Media, and Knowledge Cultures.

His interests are in education, philosophy and social policy and is a lifelong Fellow of the New Zealand Academy of Humanities. His research interests are in educational philosophy, theory and policy studies with a focus on the significance of both contemporary philosophers (Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Heidegger) and the movements of poststructuralism, critical theory and analytic philosophy to the framing of educational theory and practice.

He is also interested in philosophical and political economy questions of knowledge production and consumption. His major current projects include work on distributed knowledge, learning and publishing systems, and ‘open education’.

He has written over eighty books, including The Global Financial Crisis and the Restructuring of Education (2015), Paulo Freire: The Global Legacy (2015) both with Tina Besley, Education Philosophy and Politics: Selected Works (2011); Education, Cognitive Capitalism and Digital Labour (2011), with Ergin Bulut; and Neoliberalism and After? Education, Social Policy and the Crisis of Capitalism (2011).

He has acted as an advisor to governments on these and related matters in Scotland, NZ, South Africa and the EU. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of NZ in 2010 and awarded honorary doctorates by State University of New York (SUNY) in 2012 and University of Aalborg in 2015.