A respected Harvard logician and philosopher gathers together twenty-nine writings dealing with the foundations of mathematics, Rudolf Carnap, lin-guistics, ...

In this brief book one of the most distinguished living American philosophers takes up the question of whether ethical judgments can properly be considered ...

Our nation’s schools have always been contested turf but perhaps never more so than in today’s volatile environment. Educational policy and educational values have never been more controversial, and the schools themselves are under attack from many different directions.The role of philosophy of education in such an environment is not to dictate answers. Rather, it must foster understanding of the philosophical issues underlying contemporary debates. In this survey, Nel Noddings provides the essential background necessary for a more sophisticated and nuanced (...) comprehension of the issues. Philosophy of Education is designed for general students of education who need to know something about philosophical thought and its exercise in teaching, learning, research, and educational policy. It assumes no previous training in philosophy. Ranging broadly from the great historical figures through John Dewey to contemporary representatives of both analytic and Continental traditions, it is always fair-minded, generous, and undogmatic. Attractive features are the author’s nondoctrinaire feminism, her commitment to the empowerment of students, and her coverage of the most recent trends in educational thought.This is an essential book not just for teachers and for future teachers but for anyone needing a survey of contemporary trends in the philosophy of education. (shrink)

In this incisive study Sarah Broadie gives an argued account of the main topics of Aristotle's ethics: eudaimonia, virtue, voluntary agency, practical reason, akrasia, pleasure, and the ethical status of theoria. She explores the sense of "eudaimonia," probes Aristotle's division of the soul and its virtues, and traces the ambiguities in "voluntary." Fresh light is shed on his comparison of practical wisdom with other kinds of knowledge, and a realistic account is developed of Aristototelian deliberation. The concept of pleasure as (...) value-judgment is expounded, and the problem of akrasia is argued to be less of a problem to Aristotle than to his modern interpreters. Showing that the theoretic ideal of Nicomachean Ethics X is in step with the earlier emphasis on practice, as well as with the doctrine of the Eudemian Ethics, this work makes a major contribution towards the understanding of Aristotle's ethics. (shrink)

This article surveys work in epistemology since the mid-1980s. It focuses on contextualism about knowledge attributions, modest forms of foundationalism, and the internalism/externalism debate and its connections to the ethics of belief.

In this brief book one of the most distinguished living American philosophers takes up the question of whether ethical judgments can properly be considered objective--a question that has vexed philosophers over the past century. Reviewing what he deems the disastrous consequences of ontology's influence on analytic philosophy--in particular, the contortions it imposes upon debates about the objective of ethical judgments--Putnam proposes abandoning the very idea of ontology.

There exists a vast literature on evidence‐based practice in education. The debate branches out in several directions, for example, what EBP entails for the nature of educational practice, what it entails for the teaching profession, what counts as use and abuse of evidence, and what educational research could or should contribute to a what works kind of practice. In this essay Tone Kvernbekk focuses on the fate of the concept of evidence in the debate, observing that the concept seems, by (...) and large, to be missing from the debate. She argues that educational debates about EBP stand to gain in nuance and depth from employing philosophical insights about evidence. Kvernbekk develops this claim by discussing different conceptions of evidence and by inquiring into three aspects of the evidentiary relation: the meaning of “based,” underdetermination, and the relativization of evidence. (shrink)

One of Hume's most well-known works and a masterpiece of philosophy, A Treatise of Human Nature is indubitably worth taking the time to read.

There have been times in the history of ethical theory, especially in this century, when moral realism was down, but it was never out. The appeal of this doctrine for many moral philosophers is apparently so strong that there are always supporters in its corner who seek to resuscitate the view. The attraction is obvious: moral realism purports to provide a precious philosophical good, viz., objectivity and all that this involves, including right answers to (most) moral questions, and the possibility (...) of knowing those answers. In the last decade, moral realism has re-entered the philosophical ring in powerful-looking naturalistic form. ln this paper we provide a dialectical overview: we situate the new wave position itself, and also our objections to it, in the context of the evolving program of philosophical naturalism in 20th century analytic philosophy. We seek to show that although this new contender might initially look like championship material, it succumbs to punches surprisingly similar to those that knocked out the old-fashioned versions of naturalist moral realism. (shrink)

With a new foreword by Jonathan Lear 'Remarkably lively and enjoyable…It is a very rich book, containing excellent descriptions of a variety of moral theories, and innumerable and often witty observations on topics encountered on the way.' -_ Times Literary Supplement_ Bernard Williams was one of the greatest philosophers of his generation. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy is not only widely acknowledged to be his most important book, but also hailed a contemporary classic of moral philosophy. Drawing on the (...) ideas of the Greek philosophers, Williams reorients ethics away from a preoccupation with universal moral theories towards ‘truth, truthfulness and the meaning of an individual life’. He explores and reflects upon the most difficult problems in contemporary philosophy and identifies new ideas about central issues such as relativism, objectivity and the possibility of ethical knowledge. This edition also includes a commentary on the text by A.W.Moore. At the time of his death in 2003, Bernard Williams was hailed by the Times as 'the outstanding moral philosopher of his age.' He taught at the Universities of Cambridge, Berkeley and Oxford and is the author of many influential books, including _Morality; Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry_ and _Truth and Truthfulness_. (shrink)

By the time of his death in 2003, Bernard Williams was one of the greatest philosophers of his generation. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy is not only widely acknowledged to be his most important book, but also hailed a contemporary classic of moral philosophy. Presenting a sustained critique of moral theory from Kant onwards, Williams reorients ethical theory towards ‘truth, truthfulness and the meaning of an individual life’. He explores and reflects upon the most difficult problems in contemporary philosophy (...) and identifies new ideas about central issues such as relativism, objectivity and the possibility of ethical knowledge. (shrink)

With a new foreword by Jonathan Lear 'Remarkably lively and enjoyable…It is a very rich book, containing excellent descriptions of a variety of moral theories, and innumerable and often witty observations on topics encountered on the way.' -_ Times Literary Supplement_ Bernard Williams was one of the greatest philosophers of his generation. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy is not only widely acknowledged to be his most important book, but also hailed a contemporary classic of moral philosophy. Drawing on the (...) ideas of the Greek philosophers, Williams reorients ethics away from a preoccupation with universal moral theories towards ‘truth, truthfulness and the meaning of an individual life’. He explores and reflects upon the most difficult problems in contemporary philosophy and identifies new ideas about central issues such as relativism, objectivity and the possibility of ethical knowledge. This edition also includes a commentary on the text by A.W.Moore. At the time of his death in 2003, Bernard Williams was hailed by the Times as 'the outstanding moral philosopher of his age.' He taught at the Universities of Cambridge, Berkeley and Oxford and is the author of many influential books, including _Morality; Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry_ and _Truth and Truthfulness_. (shrink)

What is the philosophical status of the philosophy of education? Is it philosophy, no different from the philosophy of science and the philosophy of mind? Much depends on where these latter derive their philosophical bona fides from. There are two ways of viewing the matter. On one account, they are subdivisions of the veritable philosophy branches of metaphysics and epistemology. It being impossible to view philosophy of education as comparably emanating from any of the philosophical originals, this approach effectively deprives (...) it of proper philosophical standing. On the other account, nonoriginal philosophy branches may be viewed as attaining philosophihood, each on its own. Such a purview provides the maneuverability needed to countenance the philosophical nature of philosophy of education as well. Still, George Pollack argues in this essay that if it is to fully accommodate philosophy of education, philosophy will need to be reconceived to include the unearthing of the philosophical foundations of a social practice. (shrink)

In this review essay, Harvey Kantor and Robert Lowe explore the history of the culture wars in public education in the United States. Drawing on three books — David Tyack’s Seeking Common Ground, Jonathan Zimmerman’s Whose America? and Amy Binder’s Contentious Curricula— Kantor and Lowe review the history of struggles over the content of history texts and over the place of religion and religious values in the classroom. They suggest that while these struggles have been partially successful in freeing public (...) education from the racial and ethno‐religious particularisms that informed its origins, the more inclusive curriculum that resulted from these efforts has been rendered largely symbolic by the persistence of segregation and the inequality of resources that accompanies it. (shrink)

Special Issue: What is Analytic Philosophy.

There have been times in the history of ethical theory, especially in this century, when moral realism was down, but it was never out. The appeal of this doctrine for many moral philosophers is apparently so strong that there are always supporters in its corner who seek to resuscitate the view. The attraction is obvious: moral realism purports to provide a precious philosophical good, viz., objectivity and all that this involves, including right answers to (most) moral questions, and the possibility (...) of knowing those answers. In the last decade, moral realism has re-entered the philosophical ring in powerful-looking naturalistic form. ln this paper we provide a dialectical overview: we situate the new wave position itself, and also our objections to it, in the context of the evolving program of philosophical naturalism in 20th century analytic philosophy. We seek to show that although this new contender might initially look like championship material, it succumbs to punches surprisingly similar to those that knocked out the old-fashioned versions of naturalist moral realism. (shrink)

By the time of his death in 2003, Bernard Williams was one of the greatest philosophers of his generation. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy is not only widely acknowledged to be his most important book, but also hailed a contemporary classic of moral philosophy. Presenting a sustained critique of moral theory from Kant onwards, Williams reorients ethical theory towards ‘truth, truthfulness and the meaning of an individual life’. He explores and reflects upon the most difficult problems in contemporary philosophy (...) and identifies new ideas about central issues such as relativism, objectivity and the possibility of ethical knowledge. This edition also includes a new commentary on the text by A.W.Moore and a foreword by Jonathan Lear. (shrink)

This essay begins where Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue begins: facing a moral world in ruin. MacIntyre argues that this predicament leaves us with a choice: we can follow the path of Friedrich Nietzsche, accepting this moral destruction and attempting to create lives in a rootless, uncertain world, or the path of Aristotle, working to reclaim a world in which close‐knit communities sustain human practices that make it possible for us to flourish. Jeff Frank rejects MacIntyre's framework and in this essay (...) attempts to create an alternative path, one of moral repair. Through a close reading of several poems from Robert Frost's North of Boston, Frank develops the notion of moral repair and describes its ethical and educational implications. (shrink)

In this essay, Paul Smeyers and Nicholas Burbules reexamine the concept of “practice” and propose a new way of conceiving it that does justice to the idea that education is in some sense an initiation into practices without endorsing either the conservative and reproductive conception of what initiation entails or the radically social constructionist idea that all practices are arbitrary and groundless. First, drawing from the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Charles Taylor, Smeyers and Burbules outline how the (...) centrality of the concept of “practice” should be understood. Second, they indicate how the concept has come under pressure to the extent that one may doubt whether there are any “practices” left in contemporary society. Third, they differentiate between different kinds of practices in terms of how they are learned and how they are enacted, and suggest the central role that narrativization plays in these processes. They conclude that a theoretical focus on initiation into practices need not lead either to conservative or to relativistic conclusions. (shrink)

According to moral relativism, there is not a single true morality. There are a variety of possible moralities or moral frames of reference, and whether something is morally right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust, etc. is a relative matter—relative to one or another morality or moral frame of reference. Something can be morally right relative to one moral frame of reference and morally wrong relative to another. It is useful to compare moral relativism to other relativisms. One (...) possible comparison is with motion relativism. There is no such thing as absolute motion or absolute rest. Whether something is moving or at rest is relative to a spatio-temporal frame of reference. Something may be at rest in one frame of reference and moving in another. There is no such thing as absolute motion and absolute rest, but we can make do with relative motion and rest. Similarly, moral relativism is the view that, although there is no such thing as absolute right and wrong, we can make do with relative right and wrong. (shrink)

R. S. Peters never explicitly talks about wisdom as being an aim of education. He does, however, in numerous places, emphasize that education is of the whole person and that, whatever else it might be about, it involves the development of knowledge and understanding. Being educated, he claims, is incompatible with being narrowly specialized. Moreover, he argues, education enables a person to have a different perspective on things, ‘to travel with a different view’ [Peters, R. S. (1967). What is an (...) educational process? In R. S. Peters (Ed.), The concept of education (pp. 1–23). Routledge and Kegan Paul]. In asserting this about education, Peters has more in common with another great English educator, John Henry, Cardinal Newman, than one might expect, given they are separated by about a century and start from different philosophical perspectives, namely Kant to a significant degree in the former and Aristotle in the latter. Both nevertheless acknowledge the importance of reason and its development in any education worthy of the name. I will argue that in describing the ‘educated person’ Peters is not far from the view of Newman, who saw education as being about the ‘enlargement of mind’. Although Newman hesitates to call ‘enlargement of mind’ wisdom, and Peters does not use either term, there are good grounds for proposing that in distinguishing between education and training, and in asserting education is moral education because it is concerned to improve persons, Peters acknowledges the higher purposes of education and hence, we can add, its connection with wisdom. Significantly, what such a reading of Peters emphasizes is his insistence on the intrinsic value of education, a view seemingly lost in modern market-driven conceptions of education. (shrink)

This book focuses on major educational philosophies impacting Western education and makes sense of past and current trends placed in historical context. This third edition is updated with the swift changes taking place in education and looks at postmodernism as it has continued to develop during the past fifty years.

The crucial epistemological question for formulating the principles that underlie moral education concerns the status of rationality and objectivity in ethics and education. In this essay Katariina Holma argues that the intertwined understanding of the concepts of education, ethics, rationality, and objectivity is built into our language and our thinking. She begins by delineating epistemologically adequate interpretations for the notions of rationality and objectivity. In light of these interpretations, Holma contends that the two main contemporary philosophical arguments against the possibility (...) of ethical objectivity — the argument that derives from cultural relativism and the argument that derives from the scientific worldview — fail to refute this possibility. The epistemological notions of rationality and objectivity, as Holma interprets them in this essay, prepare the way for a moral education that combines the appreciation of personal and cultural plurality with the possibility for critical thinking and the pursuit of better understanding in the ethical realm. (shrink)

In this essay, Paul Smeyers and Nicholas Burbules reexamine the concept of “practice” and propose a new way of conceiving it that does justice to the idea that education is in some sense an initiation into practices without endorsing either the conservative and reproductive conception of what initiation entails or the radically social constructionist idea that all practices are arbitrary and groundless. First, drawing from the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Charles Taylor, Smeyers and Burbules outline how the (...) centrality of the concept of “practice” should be understood. Second, they indicate how the concept has come under pressure to the extent that one may doubt whether there are any “practices” left in contemporary society. Third, they differentiate between different kinds of practices in terms of how they are learned and how they are enacted, and suggest the central role that narrativization plays in these processes. They conclude that a theoretical focus on initiation into practices need not lead either to conservative or to relativistic conclusions. (shrink)

Much recent scholarship on changing educational practices in Western families focuses on the idea that negotiation has become the dominant approach to family household management. In this essay, Bruno Vanobbergen, Michel Vandenbroeck, Rudi Roose, and Maria Bouverne‐De Bie examine the idea of the negotiation model functioning as a directive. To illustrate this process, they demonstrate how the contemporary vocabulary about parental education affects the construction of parental beliefs and the concepts that define research. The authors first present a genealogy of (...) negotiation by looking at constructions of childhood and parenthood, as well as the educational practices that shape, and are in turn shaped by, these constructions. They then turn their attention to the concept of the autonomous self and its implications for family relations and family household practices. (shrink)