Academic Writing, Philosophy and Genre

This book investigates how philosophical texts display a variety of literary forms and explores philosophical writing and the relation of philosophy to literature and reading.

• Discusses the many different philosophical genres that have developed, among them letters, the treatise, the confession, the meditation, the allegory, the essay, the soliloquy, the symposium, the consolation, the commentary, the disputation, and the dialogue
• Shows how these forms of philosophy have conditioned and become the basis of academic writing (and assessment) within both the university and higher education more generally
• Explores questions of philosophical writing and the relation of philosophy to literature and reading

This book investigates how philosophical texts display a variety of literary forms and explores philosophical writing and the relation of philosophy to literature and reading.

• Discusses the many different philosophical genres that have developed, among them letters, the treatise, the confession, the meditation, the allegory, the essay, the soliloquy, the symposium, the consolation, the commentary, the disputation, and the dialogue
• Shows how these forms of philosophy have conditioned and become the basis of academic writing (and assessment) within both the university and higher education more generally
• Explores questions of philosophical writing and the relation of philosophy to literature and reading

Michael A. Peters is Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has degrees in geography, philosophy and education. He previously held a chair as research professor and professor of education at the University of Glasgow (2000-2005) as well as a personal chair at the University of Auckland, and was adjunct professor of communication studies at the Auckland University of Technology. He is the editor of three international journals: Educational Philosophy and Theory; Policy Futures in Education; and E-Learning. He is also the author or editor of over forty books, including most recently Global Knowledge Cultures (2007), Knowledge Economy, Development and the Future of Higher Education (2007), Building Knowledge Cultures: Education in the Age of Knowledge Capitalism (2006), and Deconstructing Derrida: Tasks for the New Humanities (2005). His research interests include educational philosophy, education and public policy, social and political theory.