Hirsch Argument Atlas
Named criticism registry — machine-compiled 2026-08-18 and provenance-audited for the live dossiers through 2026-08-24. Dossier-linked records expose structured primary and companion sources with an explicit access/review basis. Position-card source tags describe how wording entered the registry; the source-provenance records state separately whether full text, excerpts, an abstract, a secondary treatment, or only a citation was actually reviewed. Targets are unreviewed.
alternative frameworkcurriculum theory / Bildung

Carlgren, I. (2020)

Powerful knowns and powerful knowings
Journal of Curriculum Studies 52(3), 323-336 · 10.1080/00220272.2020.1717634
Didaktik-tradition argument that knowledge is inseparably tacit and embodied ('knowings' of 'knowns'), so treating it as propositional substance one 'has more or less of' misdescribes what a curriculum should build.
Used in Dossier 4

This critic is attached to the exact objection and inference it challenges, not merely to the topic.

D4 · O4 — Qualification and socialization are not the whole of education · targets A4 A5 A8 I4 I5 I8

D4 · O7 — The rivals are not content-free or anti-authority · targets A4 A7 A9 I5 I6

Primary targets: P03 P19 P06 P18
Availability: open access
CC BY-NC-ND, read directly.
Registry verification: yes

Positions (5)

Teaching's object is the production of 'knowings' -- pupils' embodied engagement with specific 'knowns' -- not the transfer of propositional content.
“The object of teaching is the production of knowings—the development of the pupils' knowings of specific knowns.”
argument sub-agent primary read targets: P03 P19
Hirsch's response — not found
none found in ten books
Treating knowledge as theoretical propositional knowledge leads to a mistaken 'substance' metaphor -- something a person simply 'has more or less of'.
“Perceiving knowledge as theoretical propositional knowledge leads to thinking about knowledge as a kind of substance that a person can have more or less of.”
argument sub-agent primary read targets: P19 P06
Hirsch's response — not found
none found in ten books
All knowledge has tacit dimensions that should be counted as knowledge, not treated as a residual outside it.
“There are tacit dimensions in all knowledge, and they should somehow be included in what counts as knowledge.”
argument sub-agent primary read targets: P03
Hirsch's response — not found
none found in ten books
Knowledge has a foreground of focal, propositional content and a background of subsidiary, tacit knowledge incorporated into the body -- a structure a list-based content curriculum cannot capture.
“All knowledge has a foreground and a background; the foreground is focal knowledge, while the background is subsidiary knowledge incorporated into our bodies as tacit knowledge.”
argument sub-agent primary read targets: P03
Hirsch's response — not found
none found in ten books
Schools should provide educative practices in which the distinctive character of 'powerful knowings' can actually be experienced, not merely listed as content.
“A central task for school is therefore to provide educative practices where distinctive characteristics of powerful knowings can be experienced.”
argument sub-agent primary read targets: P18 P24
Hirsch's response — not found
none found in ten books