Understanding Israel Scheffler's The Letter Through Routledge Revivals
I've been working with philosophy of education texts for a long time, and the Routledge Revivals edition of Israel Scheffler's work on The Letter is one of those books that shows up on reading lists more often than it gets properly understood. Let me walk through what it actually is and how you might approach it. Israel Scheffler was a major figure in the philosophy of education movement that took shape in America during the mid-twentieth century. His work at Harvard and through his publications helped establish education as a legitimate field for philosophical inquiry. The Letter deals with how we communicate, interpret, and transmit knowledge through language and text. It's rooted in his broader interest in the epistemology of education—how knowing something relates to teaching and learning it. The Routledge Revivals program took a number of Scheffler's earlier works and reissued them with new introductions. This wasn't just repackaging. The series was meant to make certain foundational texts accessible again after they had gone out of print. For Scheffler specifically, this means students and researchers who couldn't track down older editions now have a viable copy.
Here's what most people miss when they first encounter this book. Scheffler isn't writing a simple guide to literacy or a practical manual about teaching reading. The Letter operates at a fairly abstract level, drawing on his earlier work in the philosophy of language and his analysis of how statements function within educational contexts. You'll find him wrestling with questions about meaning, reference, and the difference between following rules mechanically and understanding what those rules are actually doing. That's not always an easy read. When I was first trying to use this text in a graduate seminar, I ran into a real problem. Students were getting stuck on Scheffler's distinctions between different kinds of statements—the declarative, the imperative, the conditional—without seeing how they connected to actual classroom practice. They wanted concrete examples, and Scheffler was giving them formal analysis. The workaround I found was to have them take each distinction and apply it to a specific lesson plan they'd written. Once they saw how the imperative form operated differently from the declarative in their own teaching documents, the abstraction clicked into something usable. That shift from pure philosophy to applied analysis seemed to be exactly where Scheffler himself wanted readers to land. What you get with the Routledge Revivals edition specifically is the original text, sometimes with minor corrections or an updated preface, but not a dramatically revised version. If you're looking for Scheffler's later work—his more developed thinking on democracy and education—this won't give you that. It's the earlier material, preserved.
A few counter-intuitive things about this book that I wish more people knew: First, Scheffler's treatment of The Letter connects more directly to his work on scientific thinking in education than most readers realize. If you only read this volume in isolation, you'll miss some of the conceptual scaffolding he was building across his career. Reading it alongside his earlier The Language of Education gives you a much clearer picture of where his arguments were heading. Second, the book is often assigned in education programs but is frequently misused as a primary source for curriculum design. It's not a curriculum book. It's a philosophical investigation into the nature of educational communication. Using it as a how-to guide will frustrate you. Using it as a lens for examining why certain instructional approaches succeed or fail—that's where it earns its keep.
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There are also limitations worth being upfront about. The prose style is dense. Scheffler writes in a very deliberate, analytical manner that assumes familiarity with philosophical terminology. If you're approaching this as a casual read or need to move through it quickly for a course requirement, you will struggle. I've seen students try to skim it, and it doesn't work the way skimmable texts do. Each paragraph tends to build carefully on the previous one, and skipping ahead creates gaps in the argument. Another practical issue: the Routledge Revivals editions can sometimes have binding or paper quality that's adequate but not ideal for long-term reference. I've had copies where the spine cracks after repeated use on a desk. If you plan to annotate heavily or keep this for years, consider whether a hardcover or an older secondhand copy might serve you better depending on your budget. For accessing the book, Routledge publishes it through their standard channels. You'll find it on their website, through academic distributors like Taylor and Francis, and on major retail platforms. Some university libraries also carry it in their education collections. If you're a student without institutional access, the paperback edition is usually the most economical route, though pricing varies by region and retailer.
If The Letter doesn't quite match what you need, Scheffler's The Language of Education remains the more accessible entry point into his thought. It covers similar territory with somewhat less technical density. For anyone whose primary interest is practical educational philosophy rather than the epistemological foundations, that's the better starting place. The Letter works best once you already have a foothold in his broader framework.
