The work of Nelson Goodman has had a considerable influence in a range of fields of analytic philosophy. His method is technical and ontologically parsimonious. His re-constructions of concepts in science and art sometimes mark deep departures from traditional ways of conceiving the nature of art works and scientific theories. His unremitting nominalism led to a radical constructivist or irrealist position that seems largely compatible with the anti- essentialist critique that gathered pace in the decades following his main contributions and had its expression in the varieties of post-modernism.  But Goodman was at pains to show how different his position was from what he saw as the  ‘anti-intellectualistic, the mystic – my arch enemy…’ (1972 p25).  Goodman was a constructivist not only in the usual sense of acknowledging the constitutive nature of our conceptions (versions) of the world but also in the way that he saw it as part of the responsibility of the philosopher to construct coherent, robust and consistent systems of statements that would serve as correctives to the logical disarray of natural language.  As he put it, ‘The philosopher has a ….quarrel with common sense. He is not, as some think, her arch enemy; but rather her devoted admirer, whom she repeatedly betrays.’ (1972 p 49). It was in this spirit that he turned his attention to the field of aesthetics and the way we talk about art. In his book Languages of Art, first published in 1968, he developed a general theory of symbols.  The formulations in that system are the focus of this paper. In particular it explores how the use of Goodman's ways of thinking about and describing the different forms of reference, and particularly his construction of exemplification (both literal and metaphorical), can help clarify some central educational concerns. The space of a short paper does not allow of a full demonstration of their fruitfulness, or a full critical exposition of his work. The more modest aim is to say enough, with enough clarity, to demonstrate that there is strength in the argument that Goodman’s work is relevant and helpful to our concerns and is worthy of better understanding and more widespread application.

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