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As an introduction to the six essays written in honor of Joseph Agassi's last book, I explain the book structure and Agassi's purpose in writing it. To the contrary of what I had in mind when I invited Agassi to pen this manuscript—his Cynic- and Zen-like educational practices, on which I have elaborated elsewhere and which required further clarification—Agassi chose to write on the intersection of the philosophy of life with academic philosophy. Following Socrates, he called for an active collaboration of both. By explaining why "philosophy is nothing ... if it is not the advocacy of reason," Agassi summed up his entire philosophy in what turned out to be his clearest and most insightful work, his testament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his last book, Agassi reiterates Critical Rationalism as a full-fledged philosophy of life. He criticizes Paternalism and Relativism as degenerative, and even pathological, attempts to grant life a meaning, and suggests, in their place, that fallibilism is the minimal condition for a meaningful life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this volume, the authors seek to analyze the actual influence of Dilthey’s philosophy of the human sciences on various contemporary debates. They are convinced that Dilthey’s interpretative-holistic epistemology provides a good starting point for engaging with alternative conceptions of the human sciences. Throughout the volume, the authors illustrate the importance of Dilthey’s main concepts for constituting the human-scientific objects of inquiry qua historically contextualized objects of inquiry. It is the interpretative reflection on the forms of human beings’ self-understanding of their situatedness that requires the implementation of double hermeneutics in the constitution of such objects. In my review, I concentrate chiefly on five versions of double hermeneutics discussed by the authors in different methodological contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is based upon two studies applying a life history approach, letting 15- to 16-year-olds reconstruct their own childhood in preschool and school, to see what meaning and importance children's experiences have in forming their self-concepts and philosophy of life. A combination of methods was used: written life stories, round tours in the educational settings and interviews. The round tour, a new method, helps the youths to remember and to work inductively, using later experiences, here called post-understanding, to analyse their childhood memories. The results show that relations both with people and content characterized by dialogue and reciprocity are crucial for development and learning; the project of learning and knowledge cannot be separated from the social interpersonal project. Meetings, good or bad, could become existential questions and lead to new choices and values in life. Memory plays an important part both methodologically and in forming the young people's self-concepts, values and philosophy of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the debate concerning the education of nurses that is currently taking place in Denmark, two widely differing views are apparent regarding the best way of training nurses such that the ethical aspect of their work is adequately considered. The first of these is based on the premise that practical care is fundamental to and justified by theories on nursing, care and ethics, which is why the theoretical part of nurse education deserves a higher priority. The second view is based on the premise that social care cannot be taught by means of theories, but can be learnt only through practice. The master–apprentice principle of ancient Greece is stressed in connection with this as being a viable alternative to the theoretical model of education. These two very different views can be traced back to Plato’s and Aristotle’s ideas on ethics and teaching respectively; indeed, those engaged in the debate make specific reference to these philosophers. In Denmark, a third fundamental viewpoint exists, known as ‘ontological ethics’. Phenomenologist KE Løgstrup is one of the best-known representatives of this view. Basing the line of argument on Løgstrup’s ethics and the view of education associated with this, this article questions the relevance of ancient Greek thought to today’s world by illustrating a number of problems that are connected with the theoretical model of nurse education and with the master–apprentice principle. Løgstrup associates ethics with the aesthetic principle that ‘the useless is the most useful’ in human life and with the view we also see in Kierkegaard’s and NFS Grundtvig’s writings that ethics can be imparted only by indirect means. Løgstrup bases his understanding of ethics on the Judaeo–Christian concept of Genesis and the view that human beings were created with an ethical potential that is best nourished by aesthetic impressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]