Question On the tube in London many years ago, I was reading a piece in the Evening Standard by Ayer on some educational matters. In there he made the surprising statement 'After all all education is indoctrination anyway'. Bearing in mind education and indoctrination are characteristically opposed to each other, what could Ayer have been getting at? Or is this simply an example of a gifted philosopher not bringing his usual acumen to bear upon the topic under discussion? Ian g

Accepted:
January 28, 2006

Comments

I don't know Ayer's work well enough to comment on what he had in mind, but here are a couple of general observations about the relationship between education and indoctrination. First, there are certainly some similarities between the two. There is a sense in which they do the same kind of thing, namely, they both aim to bring it about that the people who 'undergo' them come to adopt some beliefs and behaviours and give up other beliefs and behaviours as a result of their education or indoctrination. Also, both can fulfill a common function, that of training individuals to occupy the various roles (doctor, soldier, parent, priest, etc.) that people fulfill in the societies in which the indoctrination or education takes place.

One central difference between them, I would say, has to do with the attitude that a student is allowed or encouraged to take towards what she is taught. Education gives a student at least some freedom to question what she isbeing taught (and in principle, perhaps, complete freedom). It assumes the responsibility of justifying its claim thatwhat is being taught is true, or useful, or important. Indoctrination, by contrast, has a less permissive attitude towards the evaluation of what is taught by the student who learns it. The authority of the institution providing the instruction is supposed to suffice to legitimate the choice of curriculum. Notice, though, that indoctrination could be used to get people tobelieve something true, while education could produce people with falsebeliefs and poor reasoning skills. History provides us with examples ofboth. And in practice, it can be difficult to tell where education leaves off and indoctrination begins (or vice-versa) -- to this extent, I think Ayer is correct.