This book for the first time brings together Professor Pring's thoughts on the philosophy of education and is his first global treatment of the subject. His writings reflect a consistency of thought about educational theory and educational aims-and the consequence of both for the nature and practice of educational research. Professor Pring draws together the different themes, providing a distinctively philosophical perspective on educational theory and practice. This perspective challenges many of the ideas, which underpin government policy, impoverish educational practice and weaken educational research in a way unacknowledged even by the research's most ardent critics.