This book offers critical essays on Harvey Siegel’s body of work on the philosophy of science, epistemology, and the philosophy of education. In fourteen new chapters, a group of international authors, including many of the best-known in the field, explore core themes from his work, including epistemological relativism, the epistemic aims of education, the critical spirit, intellectual virtue, autonomy and trust, and epistemic diversity. They also explore the connections between his work and newly emerging themes, such as educational ideals in politics, free speech, ignorance, and epistemic justice. Renowned as both a commentator on and a practitioner of critical thinking, the book brings Siegel’s work into the 2020’s and connects it with the major applied philosophical and educational issues of our time and includes a major new chapter by Siegel himself. This book will be of great interest to scholars, upper undergraduate students and graduate students in fields such as the philosophy of education and theoretical and applied epistemology as well as to student teacher and practicing teachers in fields such as critical thinking and science education.

Ben Kotzee is Professor of Philosophy of Education and Head of the Department of Education and Social Justice at the University of Birmingham. He is the editor of the Education and the Growth of Knowledge (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) and editor-in-chief of Theory and Research in Education (Sage), the journal for analytic educational theory. He writes on the philosophy of education, applied epistemology and applied ethics and has published in journals like Episteme, Journal of Applied Philosophy, Journal of Philosophy of Education and Educational Theory. He holds a PhD in philosophy from King’s College London and was previously lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London.

Kunimasa Sato is a Lecturer of Ethics at Ibaraki University in Japan. He is the Chair of the International Committee of Philosophy of Education Society of Japan and an editor of Contemporary and Applied Philosophy in Japan. His research focuses on epistemic injustice, transformative experience, and educational philosophy. His articles have appeared in several journals, such as Episteme, Annals of Ethics in Japan, Annals of the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science, and Journal of Philosophy of Education. He holds a PhD in philosophy from Nihon University in Japan and has been awarded the Fulbright Scholarship twice for his work in epistemology.