Education for objectively meaningful purposes

This theoretical article argues that education for purpose should not merely aim at fostering purposes that students find subjectively meaningful but also help them evaluate the objective value and particularly the objective meaningfulness of various purposes. We take Damon’s meaningful-to-the-self and beyond-the-self criteria as starting points and argue that these should be complemented by objective perspectives. Meaning in life is understood as an overarching value that is conferred by engagements with epistemic (the ‘true’), moral (the ‘good’), and aesthetic (the ‘beautiful’) values. Education for meaningful purposes should apply both directive and non-directive approaches. Students should be taught to understand why meaningful purposes must have epistemic and moral (and possibly aesthetic) quality and to evaluate potential purposes considering moral, epistemic, and aesthetic values. However, students themselves should reflectively decide whether they want to pursue goals that explicitly aim at realizing epistemic, moral, or aesthetic value.