INTRODUCTION

The metaphor of conversation underpins Oakeshott's entire philosophy to such an extent that Bhikhu Parekh refers to his account of human agency as ‘a conversational theory of action’. It has been described as ‘rich and capacious’ and as a ‘root metaphor’ for education by John B. Bennett, and its potential has been used by other scholars to illuminate the activities of teaching and learning. The value of the metaphor is a feature of an essay by Marc O. DeGirolami that draws substantially on what he calls Oakeshott's ‘conversational theory of education’ in the elaboration of a framework for a philosophy of education. Of course, the metaphor, which Oakeshott takes from Hobbes and Montaigne, is not a new one. It also appears in the work of Cardinal Newman and Matthew Arnold, two important theorists of the concept of a liberal education in the nineteenth century. The metaphor is reflected in Arnold's characterization of culture as made up of multifaceted ‘voices of human experience’ represented by ‘art, science, poetry, philosophy, history, as well as of religion’.

This chapter aims to analyse what exactly Oakeshott means by his characterization of education as a conversation. It endeavours to tease out the implications of Oakeshott's use of the term and to explore ways in which the metaphor can take on life in the business of teaching and learning. The chapter also considers the plausibility of the two principal strands of criticism of the metaphor of conversation, finding that much of this criticism is ill founded.