The prospects for Aristotelian character education (ACE) is considered. Seven important claims that should win wide acceptance are reviewed; and also two challenges that are impediments. I argue many of the assumptions of ACE turn out not to be distinctive. The conflation of realism and naturalism is ill-considered, and the account of…

I pursue three of the many lines of thought that were raised in my mind by Kristjánsson's engaging book. In the first section, I try to get clearer on what exactly Aristotelian character education (ACE) is, and suggest areas where I hope the view is developed in more detail. In the second and longest section, I draw some lessons from social…

Lawrence Kohlberg slayed the two dragons of twentieth-century psychology--behaviorism and psychoanalysis. His victory was a part of the larger cognitive revolution that shaped the world in which all of us study psychology and education today. But the cognitive revolution itself was modified by later waves of change, particularly an "affective…

Moral foundations theory chastises cognitive developmental theory for having foisted on moral psychology a restrictive conception of the moral domain which involves arbitrarily elevating the values of justice and caring. The account of this negative influence on moral psychology, referred to in the moral foundations theory literature as the…

This article examined how the group membership of the person being judged influenced the level of moral reasoning. Nearly 200 ordinary Italians were given two measures of moral ingroup inclusiveness (the Bogardus social distance scale and a self-categorization measure) and the short form of Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT). The protagonists in…

This study analysed mountain guides' representations of environmental responsibility and explored the paradox that these professionals face: using nature as a source of income while trying to preserve it. The study was mainly guided by the philosophical literature on this topic and made use of the concepts of sustainable development and nature.…

This paper explores moral reasoning within the framework of contemporary cultural theory, in which moral functioning is action mediated by tools (such as socially available discourses) within a social and cultural context. This cultural model of a "dialogic moral self" challenges many of the assumptions inherent in the individualistic Kantian…

Martha Nussbaum and others claim that the study of literature can make a significant contribution to political education by nurturing empathic capacities. In Nussbaum's reading of the situation, the need to promote the creation of bonds of compassion-based solidarity between co-citizens provides material for an argument to restore the study of…

Results from research in social psychology, such as findings about the fundamental attribution error and other situational influences on behaviour, are often used to justify attacking the existence of character traits. From this perspective, character development is an illusion, an impossibility, or both. We offer a different interpretation of how…

Investigates the sensitivity to moral issues and the ability to interpret moral situations in a sample of social psychology students (n=50). Explores relationships between initial value priorities measured by the Schwartz Value Survey and moral sensitivity. Discusses results of survey based on age, gender differences, and education level. (CAJ)

Explores the question: Is there development in morality, in terms of improvement from one age level to the next, or is there simply change? Argues that the best way to approach moral education is to assume moral equality among children, adolescents, and adults and to strive for the improvement of society in general. (GG)

Questions Lawrence Kohlberg's complexity hypothesis that individuals exhibit higher stages of moral judgement in complex socio-political surroundings. Tests the moral judgements of adolescent students from The Netherlands and the former German Democratic Republic. Results of the tests failed to support Kohlberg's hypothesis. (MJP)

Identifies and explores educational issues related to Lawrence Kohlberg's work never systematically addressed by the author himself. Suggests that these issues could be developed into a contextualised theory of transformation. That theory could help make manifest Kohlberg's vision of a democratic school run by students and teachers. (MJP)

Compares and contrasts the world views and psychological assumptions of communitarianism and liberal rationalism. Liberal rationalists come out of a strongly cognitive, individualistic psychological tradition while communitarians espouse social constructivism. Discusses the implications of this for moral education. (MJP)