This article examines the question of whether and under what conditions teaching open-mindedness to students could have negative effects. While there has been much discussion in the literature about the potential downsides of being open-minded, the question of whether teaching this trait to young, untutored minds could result in more negative…

Indoctrination is an ongoing concern in education, especially in debates about moral education. One approach to this issue is to come up with a rational procedure that can robustly justify potential items of moral education content. I call this the 'rationalistic justification project'. Michael Hand's recent book, "A Theory of Moral…

The paradigm for formulating educational policy adopted by Bischoff and Shores, which appears to be the prevailing one, appears to offer no role to the citizen, rendering the paradigm suspect. The authors' honest admission of the limitations of social science knowledge undercuts the argument for the usefulness of research in this area.

In "Two Conceptions of Virtue," Thomas Hill reconstructs the conceptions of virtue, and of proper moral upbringing, found in Kant and Rawls. Here I offer some brief reflections on these conceptions of virtue and its cultivation. I argue that Kant's conception of virtue is grounded in a mistaken conception of desire, and that this…

The general questions are: what is virtue and how can it be cultivated? The specific focus is on the conceptions of virtue in the works of Immanuel Kant and John Rawls. Kant regarded virtue as a good will that is also strong enough to resist contrary passions, impulses, and inclinations. Childhood training can prepare children for virtue, but…

Virtue epistemologists hold that knowledge results from the display of epistemic virtues--open-mindedness, rigor, sensitivity to evidence, and the like. But epistemology cannot rest satisfied with a list of the virtues. What is wanted is a criterion for being an epistemic virtue. An extension of a formulation of Kant's categorical imperative…

This article reflects on different conceptions of educational philosophy, their strengths and weaknesses. Against the backdrop of major alternatives, and the received view, delineated by RS Peters, John White's recent radically practical conception is critically assessed. Notwithstanding a pluralist answer to the question "What is, can…

Catherine Elgin proposes a novel principle for identifying epistemic virtue. Based loosely on Kant's Categorical Imperative, it identifies autonomy as our fundamental epistemic responsibility, and defines the epistemic virtues as those traits of character needed to exercise epistemic autonomy. I argue that Elgin's principle fails as a…

This article argues that in divided societies, civic education fails to fulfill one of its most important social role: creating a more inclusive society that allows a democratic dialogue to flow across different ideological, religious, and cultural communities. This failure is grounded in two main reasons. First, civics teachers are socially and…

This article sketches the contours of a neo-Aristotelian account of education, justice, and the human good, organized around a sequence of three increasingly distinctive features of the Aristotelian understanding of respect for persons as rational beings. The first and second of these features bear on important aspects of educational justice,…

The practical power of appeals to patriotism implies that patriotism in one form or another is here to stay. As such, arguments for the repudiation of patriotism cannot avoid seeming a bit utopian or ethereal. Practically speaking, we cannot repudiate patriotism and still have effective functioning states. To that end, political philosophers…

This article examines Galston's account of civic education in light of the understanding of liberal virtues that partially informs his educational recommendations. It argues that the main limitations of Galston's account have their origin in a mistaken view of the traits of character that are essential to good citizens. Historical examples are…

William Galston posed two dilemmas about parental rights and education in "Liberal Purposes". The first of these arises from conflict between the proper ends of civic education in a liberal society and the values that some parents will want to honor in the way they rear their children; the second arises from conflict between how the basic…

Liberals champion the view that promoting autonomy--seeing to it that our children develop into individuals who are self-governing in the conduct of their lives--is a vital aim of education, though one generally accredited as being subsidiary to well-being. Our prime goal in this article is to provide a partial validation of this liberal ideal…

I reply to the more philosophical critiques of "How Not to Be a Hypocrite" (2003), published in this volume of "Theory and Research in Education". Against Elizabeth Anderson, I claim that unequal chances are unfair, and unfairness is bad, but acknowledge that its badness can be outweighed by other values. Distinguishing principled from empirical…