Teaching and knowledge: uneasy bedfellows

Abstract

In this paper we explore the connection between the act of teaching and the imparting of knowledge. Our overarching aim is to demonstrate that the connection between them is less tight than one might suppose. Our stepping off point is a recent paper by Bakhurst (2020) who takes a strong view, opposed to our own. Bakhurst argues that there is a tight conceptual connection between teaching and the imparting of knowledge. We argue that this is not the case; the connection does not hold. In the sections that follow, we consider several ways we might weaken the alleged conceptual connection between teaching and knowledge. In the concluding section, we consider two ways of severing the conceptual connection altogether, whilst at the same time allowing that much teaching does indeed lead to the imparting of knowledge. We argue that such views are to be preferred.