There are two ways, broadly speaking, that one might conceive of meritocratic education. On a standard, 'narrow' conception, a meritocratic approach to education is one which distributes certain educational goods and opportunities according to merit. On a second, 'broader' conception, however, meritocratic education is an educational system suited…

The most important and general aim of the education system is to edify students, epistemically speaking. However, it is a sad reality that the education system is sometimes a corruptive epistemic environment in which a variety of epistemic injustices occur. In this article, I first argue that the special character of educational institutions means…

This article offers retrospective and prospective commentary on the significance of "A Theory of Justice" for philosophy of education. It addresses the progress that Anglophone philosophy of education has made since the publication of "A Theory of Justice" in 1971, and the ways this progress has been facilitated by the…

Ameliorative analysis is a powerful new approach to understanding concepts, stemming from cutting-edge work at the intersection of philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and metaphysics. It offers the potential to improve our understanding of a range of subject matters. One topic to which it has not yet been applied is the concept of…

Personal well-being is a central concept in philosophical discussions of education and its aims. Although the work of general philosophers like Nussbaum, Griffin, Raz and Sen on the topic has been influential here, there has been next-to-no interest among philosophers of education in John Rawls's work on 'the good' -- in great contrast to interest…

The concept of justice that Rawls discussed in his famous book "A Theory of Justice" has had a profound influence on contemporary political and moral philosophy, as well as, to some extent, philosophy of education. Many philosophers of education have applied or criticized Rawls's concepts -- above all the concepts of autonomy, the…

This article examines the many traces of John Rawls' theory of justice in contemporary philosophy of education. Beyond work that directly explores the educational implications of justice as fairness and political liberalism, there are many interesting debates in philosophy of education that make use of Rawlsian concepts to defend views that go…

This article explores the contribution of Jürgen Habermas' discourse theory of morality, politics, and law to theorizing educational justice. First, it analyzes Christopher Martin's discourse-ethical argument that the development of citizens' discursive agency is required on epistemic grounds. The article criticizes this argument and claims that…

Howard's moral fortification theory of criminal punishment lends itself to justifying correction for children in schools that is supportive. There are good reasons to include other students in the learning opportunity occasioned by doing right in response to wrong, which need not exploit the wrongdoing student as a mere means. Care ethics can…

The coexistence, not always peaceful, of multiple and often rival, conceptions of justice in education policy and practice is well recognized and problematized in the academic literature. Relatively little is known, however, about what kind of justice-related considerations occupy the 'public mind' and/or inform what Nancy Fraser calls 'folk…

This article addresses the ethical and motivational dimensions of punishment in schools, focusing on the idea of a just school community. Lawrence Kohlberg's account of a just school community is examined and systematically revised to reflect advances in psychology and a more adequate conceptualization of justice. A eudaimonic conception of…

In the present unjust context of US schools, many educators face uncertainty about the legitimacy of their issuing punishments, especially when their identity meaningfully differs from that of their students. In this article, we address these doubts by acknowledging distinctive elements of schools to provide helpful distinctions and analyses of…

This article examines the debate between equity theorists (Adam Swift and Harry Brighouse) and adequacy theorists (Elizabeth Anderson and Debra Satz) over elite private schooling and productivity. It challenges the view, presupposed but never defended by adequacy theorists, that private schools can be justified on social productivity grounds, that…

Is good reasoning in the moral domain different from its counterpart in non-moral domains? What counts as a good moral argument, or a valid moral assertion or claim? What does 'validity' mean in the moral realm? Lots of ink has been spilled on these and related questions in the past few decades, but not much has been settled. In what follows I…

Many philosophers argue that religious schools are guilty of indoctrinatory harm. I think they are right to be worried about that. But in this article, I will postulate that there are other harms for many individuals that are more severe outside the religious school. Accordingly the full scope of harm should be taken into account when evaluating…