C.S. Lewis on Higher Education: The Pedagogy of Pleasure

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Why do we pursue a university education? Is it to improve our employability, earning potential and status? Or should the fulfilment of knowledge be justified purely for the enjoyment it brings? For the first time Stewart Goetz uncovers C.S. Lewis’s overlooked views on the purpose of higher education and encourages us to rethink our reasons.

Drawing on Lewis’s general view of pleasure as the ultimate purpose of human life, Goetz explores how this perspective informed his justification of a university education. He introduces us to Lewis’s utilitarian view that learning and knowledge are valuable when they lead to experiences of pleasure, presenting Lewis’s defence for his own involvement in higher education as a Christian, his response to naturalism in the academy and the practical issues of implementing Lewis’s thought.

Guided by these fresh views on the academy, Goetz not only sharpens our understanding of Lewis’s life and work, he asks us to question why we attend, study, teach or research at a university.

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