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On the Prerequisites of Moral Education: a Wittgensteinean perspective
Author(s) -
KAZEPIDES TASOS
Publication year - 1991
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/j.1467-9752.1991.tb00646.x
Subject(s) - parallels , epistemology , perspective (graphical) , moral disengagement , social cognitive theory of morality , moral education , moral reasoning , sociology , moral development , philosophy of education , environmental ethics , philosophy , psychology , social psychology , pedagogy , higher education , law , political science , mechanical engineering , artificial intelligence , computer science , engineering
In this paper I distinguish between education and its prerequisites and try to defend the ontological and epistemological priority of the latter. This distinction parallels Wittgenstein's distinctions between knowledge and its river‐bed, justification and its grounds, explaining and showing, learning and acquisition. With respect to moral thinking and education, I argue that the fundamental moral principles occupy a position akin to that of the river‐bed propositions; that these principles are embedded in ordinary human activities and forms of life and, therefore, ought to be taught by example and by practice and not by abstract moral thinking or contrived moral dilemmas, as some rationalist moral theorists sugges‡