Adolph Lowe on Freedom,Education and Socialization

The lifework of Adolph Lowe (1893–1995) was greatly motivated by his struggle with the problem of “freedom and order”. This paper explores Lowe's largely overlooked and under-examined writings on education and political philosophy, important components of his “political economics”. Lowe's concern with the socialization function of education is highlighted and related to his notion of “spontaneous conformity, as well as the ideas of Vygotsky on imaginative children's play and C. S. Peirce on habit-change. Taking Gorman's critique of Schutz's conception of freedom as a point of departure, and drawing on the work of C. Wright Mills, Lowe's own conception of freedom is critically examined. For Lowe, the stronger the commitment to community, the greater is the possibility for individual autonomy without the threat of social disruption.