Von Freunden und Wegen. Eine philosophische Re-Lektüre von "Modernisierung der Erwachsenenbildung"

In Modernisierung der Erwachsenenbildung (Modernization of Adult Education, 1994), Werner Lenz brought together articles that provided a scrutinizing look at the Austrian basis for research-supported development. From a content-oriented, target group-specific and systematic perspective, they illuminate the tendencies in and fields of development of adult education – primarily with an eye to the international. In this paper, Peter Schlögl attempts a philosophical re-reading of the anthology and makes use of an allegorical quotation by Ludwig Wittgenstein that he combines with an illuminating consideration of the picture on the cover, a drawing by Alfred Kubin. Can/should adult education accompany human activity along the fast track of modernized society? What questions and changes was adult education facing in the 1990s and can parallels be drawn to the situation today? What has been successful or unsuccessful (to date)? These and other questions are entertained and enlarged upon by Schlögl in the form of an essay. His discovery: the strengthening of scientific knowledge and research-led development as a principle of modern adult education is still valid beyond the concrete results and evidence characteristic of a particular time - which is probably the most sustainable contribution to the debate on adult education in Austria made by this collection, which is still worth reading today. (Ed.)