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Towards a Theory of Moral Education
Author(s) -
Hand Michael
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.12116
Subject(s) - morality , directive , sketch , moral development , moral disengagement , social cognitive theory of morality , epistemology , moral psychology , moral reasoning , sociology , moral authority , psychology , environmental ethics , social psychology , philosophy , computer science , algorithm , programming language
In this inaugural lecture, delivered at the University of Birmingham in January 2014, I sketch the outline of a theory of moral education. The theory is an attempt to resolve the tension between two thoughts widely entertained by teachers, policy‐makers and the general public. The first thought is that morality must be learned: children must come to see what morality requires of them and acquire the motivation to submit to its authority. The second thought is that morality is controversial: there is deep uncertainty about both the requirements of morality and the reasons to comply with them. I draw distinctions between two kinds of moral education (moral formation and moral inquiry) and between two kinds of moral inquiry (directive and nondirective). I argue that some basic moral standards are robustly justified and that schools should promote subscription to these standards by means of both moral formation and directive moral inquiry.