Post-humanist liberal pragmatism? Environmental education out of modernity

The authors critique C. A. Bo vers' argument that education for sustainabil ity must be inspired by the practices of pre-modern cultures, and cannot be promoted through the postmodern pragmatism of Richard Rorty. Environmental education must rather be grounded in contemporary cultural practice. Altho ugh Rorty, like many other postmodernists, has shown little concern for the ecological crisis, his approach is potentially applicable to it. What is r equired is a broadening of focus: the ecological crisis is a crisis of post -Enlightenment humanism as well as of other aspects of modernity.