Epistemological issues have always enjoyed a central place (along with metaphysical, moral, and social/political issues) in philosophical thinking about education. In the entry "Philosophy of Education, History of" in this encyclopedia, Kingsley Price skillfully treats the entire history of the subject, from the Presocratics to John Dewey. This entry covers the intervening decades, focusing on epistemological issues.

By the time of Dewey's death in 1952, philosophy in the English-speaking world was becoming increasing dominated by the analytic movement, which emphasized as methodological matters the importance of clarity, careful analysis, rigorous argumentation, and detailed attention to language, and philosophy of education was no exception to this general trend. The key figures in the development of analytic philosophy of education were Israel Scheffler in the United States, and Richard Peters and Paul Hirst in the United Kingdom. While their work...