During the 20^th century the dominating concept of knowledge was rationalistic, focusing the formulated and propositional knowledge, which was considered to mirror the world and on which actions can be formed. Such a technical rationality implies that practice is perceived as applied theory.  However, this view was also, during the whole century, questioned and criticized and alternative (pragmatic) epistemologies based on human action and practices were proposed. Towards the end of the century, these alternative views were put together under the heading ‘the practice turn’ (or pragmatic turn). Wittgenstein, Dewey and Schön are representatives from different scientific fields of this turn. When Hirst in the beginning of the 1970s proposed that liberal education should consist of different forms of knowledge he did that within the rationalistic paradigm. However, in the 1990s the practice turn seemed to have reached him and he changed, from a position of seeing theoretical knowledge as the necessary ground in liberal education to a position of seeing social practices as the basic ground. In my paper I will discuss the practice turn as well as Hirst’s ‘turn’ and relate both to a relational and contextual concept of knowledge, which, in turn, can be related to the concept of ‘Bildung’ (and liberal education).

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