There seem to be obvious virtues to keeping a sense of balance. In this paper, I consider some examples from ordinary life and education where the pursuit of balance would appear to be a benefit. Yet I also draw upon lines of thinking from John Stuart Mill and Adam Phillips to examine whether the apparent good sense of balance can be disturbed. I…

In this paper, I ask whether educational value is determined in any way by intrinsic value. The aim of the paper is to explore whether appeals to the intrinsic value of an activity or state of affairs can justify proposed educational value. I turn to Korsgaard's work on the concept of intrinsic value to cast light on the relationship between…

Interest in the role of casuistry and casuistical questions in Kant's "Doctrine of Virtue" ("DV"), i.e. the second part of the "Metaphysics of Morals," has grown in recent years. My own position is formulated in Schuessler (2012, in German), the main thesis of which will be retained here in an updated form and with…

Education is astonishingly simple. We have all been through it, whether as children or later in life--indeed, many of us are still going through it in some form or other; we all know what works; and we are all committed to realising its individual and social potential. Such a view of the matter might dispense with the need for philosophy of…

This paper addresses a central aspect of Kant's theory of moral progress and its links to both political violence and pedagogy. Kant claims in the "Conflict of the Faculties" that the reaction to the French Revolution demonstrates that the 'human race has always progressed and will further progress toward the better'. It thus constitutes…

The goal of moral education is moral formation and moral improvement. Kant's duty of moral self-perfection applies to people who have undergone preliminary stages of moral formation and are in the position to strive for moral improvement based on a grasp of principle and an understanding of ends that are also duties. We are familiar with standard…

I argue that Rawlsian liberals should consider cardinal virtue habituation as a legitimate form of moral education and citizenship education in publicly funded schools. In "Political Liberalism," Rawls acknowledges that a liberal government can and should promote certain virtues or traits of moral character in citizens, but only those…

How should a liberal democratic society value knowledge and understanding, and does this valuation inform how we ought to reason about the justice of our educational institutions? In scholarly and public discourse, it is orthodox to argue that because educational institutions bring about various goods--goods of character such as wellbeing or…

This essay explores the legacy of the four philosophers now often referred to as 'The Wartime Quartet': G.E.M. Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot and Mary Midgley. The life and work of the four, who studied together in Oxford during the Second World War, is the subject of two recently published books, "The Women Are Up to Something,"…

In this essay, I briefly outline Nietzsche's doctrine of the eternal recurrence that has implications for education, and life in general; and, lastly, I argue that from an educational point of view, Nietzsche's doctrine of the eternal recurrence is best viewed as the great cultivating thought that has radical ramifications for any project of…

Making liberal democratic values meaningful to study in schools is a more complex issue than being a question of turning values into explicit educational goals (Schleicher) or of curing a motivational deficit (Critchley). Since values seem to play an important role in the practices and commitments of people's everyday lives, values are calling for…

To speak of democracy is often to speak less of a fact than of a hope. In his introduction to "Democracy in America," Alexis de Tocqueville admitted that '… in America I saw "more than" America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices and its passions, in order to learn what…

There is more to the moral life than mere adherence to a set of moral rules or principles to which the moral agent has autonomously subscribed. Something more fundamental is required for moral personhood, requiring explication in terms of 'sensitive perception' in relation to the particularities pertaining to any given set of circumstances…

Character education in schools in England is flourishing. I give many examples of the enthusiasm for it as well as drawing attention to the UK government's new ambivalence towards it. Character education seems largely impervious to the many criticisms to which it has been subjected. I touch on these only briefly as my focus is on a criticism that…

From the first co-operative trust school at Reddish Vale in Manchester in 2006, the following decade would witness a remarkable growth of 'co-operative schools' in England, which at one point numbered over 850. This paper outlines the key development of democratic education by the co-operative schools network. It explains the approach to democracy…