This paper asks where Kant stands on the question of the connection between the experience of artistic beauty and moral education, framing this discussion with Batteux's and Schiller's conceptions of this connection. Batteux articulates a cognitivist view of art as engaged with the presentation of morally significant content and draws a direct…

Stanley Cavell was the first to account for the transformation of theory and criticism brought about by reflection on popular culture and its 'ordinary' objects, such as so-called mainstream cinema. However, Cavell is less concerned with reversing artistic hierarchies than with the self-transformation required by our encounters with new…

This paper examines a controversial element of Kant's pedagogy: his 'moral catechism'. The few commentators who have examined it have focused on its content; this paper examines its method. I argue that Kant means for it to precede a Socratic approach precisely to steer the student away from adopting dogmatic doubt, which Kant thinks is a possible…

An important aspect of moral expertise is moral sensitivity, which is the ability to be sensitive to the presence of morally salient features in a context. This requires being able to see and acquire the morally relevant information, as well as organise and interpret it, so that you can undertake the related work of moral judgement, focus (or…

One aim of moral education is to help society progress from morally imperfect conventions towards more perfect ones. According to a popular view, "reflecting judgment" is the vehicle of this progress. In this paper, I argue that although reflection is important, it is not enough; moral development also requires practical synthesis. Moral…

What role should moral philosophy give to considerations about human nature and the character of human life? And what part should such considerations play in moral education? This paper explores these questions by contrasting the 'new intuitionist' position I defend in 'Practice, sensibility and moral education' (Bakhurst, 2018) with Philippa…

Questions about the conscious, conative and cognitive life, as well as the status and treatment of other-than-animals have been receiving systematic consideration by philosophers for close to 50 years. It is all the more puzzling, then, that it is only in recent years that these issues have been addressed by educational philosophers and scholars…

In this paper, I investigate the potential of a Kantian account of moral education to facilitate the development of humanity towards much-needed change in individual and collective responses to global problems such as climate change. Kant's account of moral development is focused on the internal motivation for and not the external result of…

How can stories contribute to ethical education, when they reach people who have already been shaped by many stories, including ethically problematic ones? This question is pursued here by considering Plato's allegory of the cave, focusing on a reading of it offered by Jonathan Lear. Lear claims that the cave allegory aims to undermine its…

Iris Murdoch's famous case of M and D illustrates the moral importance of learning to see others in a more favourable light through renewed attention. Yet if we do not read this case in the wider context of Murdoch's work, we are liable to overlook the attitudes and transformations involved in coming to change one's mind as M does. Stanley Cavell…

In this paper I lay out the bare bones of my conception of practical reasoning, which I understand as similar in all relevant respects to theoretical reasoning except that (as it is put) the conclusion of practical reasoning is either action or intention, while the conclusion of theoretical reasoning is belief. I then turn to ask how, on this…

While some of Paulo Freire's readers understand his pedagogy as a rejection of any and all directive teaching methods, there are many scholars who do recognise Freire's emphasis on teacher directiveness in its appropriate form. In light of this tension between directiveness and dialogue, it seems that students of Freire must inevitably come to a…

In line with familiar portrayals of Kant's ethics, interpreters of his philosophy of education focus essentially on its intellectual dimension: the notions of moral catechism, ethical gymnastics and ethical ascetics, to name but a few. By doing so, they usually emphasise Kant's negative stance towards the role of feelings in moral education. Yet…

Questions about the place of spirituality in publicly funded schools are made difficult in a multicultural secular society. I discuss the work of Paulus Geheeb and Rabindranath Tagore, two great 20th century educational innovators, to offer, by way of an argument from analogy with the social importance of moral education, a common ground for…

Inspired by the debate about character between situationism and virtue ethics, I argue that John Doris's idea, "local trait", offers a fresh insight into contemporary character education. Its positive variant, "local virtue", signals an inescapable relay station of the gradual development of virtue, and serves as a promising…