Adult Learning and Communicative Rationality

In recent years the concept of learning has been used widely in education policy discourse, often replacing the concept of education. This has provoked criticism and attempts to restate the humanist ideas of the concept of education. This paper discusses the relations between the two concepts of learning and education, including the criticism of learning voiced by some philosophers of education, the significance of the German tradition of Bildung and comprehensive concepts of learning developed by Knud Illeris and others. The paper further presents and discusses contributions to this comprehensive approach from two critical social theorists, Jürgen Habermas and Oskar Negt. These contributions substantiate the interactive dimension of learning, the links between individual learning processes and the complex forms and conditions of life in contemporary societies.