Education and Biography - Problems and perspectives of biographical research oriented by the philosophy of education

The contribution discusses traditions and potentials of a biography-theoretical approach to general educational science, exemplified by an approach that centers on the relation between biography and education, i.e. biographical research oriented by the philosophy of education. Following an outline of this research approach's program, two objections are discussed that have been formulated in critique of this approach and which are directed at both the linking of educational theory and empirical research on education as such and the "oblivion to the world" that characterizes biographical research oriented by the philosophy of education. In conclusion, possible perspectives for the further development of this approach are outlined on the basis of the analysis of these objections.