This monograph offers perspectives that challenge the increasingly taken for granted assumptions about the renewed interest in experiential principles and methods. Chapter 1 identifies the different dimensions of experiential education. It describes contemporary examples to demonstrate the political, economic, and ideological differences in their use. Contemporary texts on experiential education are examined to explore how their perspectives contribute to and/or reflect these divergences. Finally, the chapter suggests how a critical perspective--one that does not take for granted the usefulness of experiential approaches, but seeks to identify the different and often conflicting purposes behind their use--can inform the development of learning and training. Chapter 2 argues that experience is intense, unique, and profoundly social. The individual may construct her/his own learning; yet the ingredients for such a construction come from elsewhere. It sees one central source of experience as the economic system that places people in and out of work, up and down the hierarchies of power and status. The chapter also explores why some experiences seem more persuasive than others. The monograph concludes by addressing the educational issue of the present, whether experiential perspectives are employed or not--the assault on traditional notions of liberal adult education. Contains 77 references. (YLB)