This book explores the phenomenology of learning with particular focus on the ‘closeness’ or ‘proximity’ of the knowledge that impacts on learners, young and old.

Studying the power of learning to transform human beings, this book offers an in-depth discussion of how different phenomenologists understand this ‘proximate’ power. It draws on ideas of encounter from Husserl, care from Heidegger, bodily learning from Merleau-Ponty, language from Foucault, omnipotence from Winnicott and recognition from Honneth. The book examines how phenomenological insight can explain the character of radical learning.

The book will appeal to academics and post-graduate students in the fields of philosophy of education, educational psychology, teaching, and learning.