None of the respondents to NIACE's Big Conversation offered a non-instrumental defence of education. In this article, the author contends that it seems "education for its own sake" is no longer valued--even by those who should care most. The author has just been invited to speak at a conference where a keynote speech is entitled "What is education for?" For anyone with a philosophical background, the only answer one could give to this question would be very simple: "Nothing! Education is not for anything." This straightforward answer, however, does not resolve a simple confusion that is implicit in the question. Philosophers of education make a distinction between things that are means to ends and things that are ends (or ends in themselves). Education is an end rather than a means and asking "What is education for?" leads everyone to think that education is a means to some other end. A sour note in the Big Conversation was that what teachers and ordinary people said paralleled the failure of government and policy wonks to defend education as something of value, without a "BUT." Being sympathetic to the views of those who want to turn adult education into personal and social training is a tactic that may win them over for a while or produce some funding, or a "feel good" factor in sorely pressed adult educators, states this author, but it undermines people's belief in the value of education. A real defence of adult education requires a defence of education for its own sake.