Pursuing the Idea/l of an Educated Public: Philosophy's Contributions to Radical School Reform

Abstract

Alasdair MacIntyre has argued that our modern, post‐Enlightenment societies lack the shared standards of moral argument that are prerequisite to productive public debate. He measures our situation against the ideal of an educated public, members of which share enough common ground to resolve disagreements rationally because they have been prepared to participate in disciplined argument by their school and university curricula. This paper identifies questions to be addressed and tasks to be undertaken by philosophers who seek radical school reform in order to help create the intellectual, cultural and institutional conditions for productive public debate.

Recovering the LostMétierof Philosophy of Education? Reflections on Educational Thought, Policy and Practice in the UK and Farther Afield

“…A special issue of the Journal of Philosophy of Education (Dunne and Hogan, 2003) provided some searching criticisms of MacIntyre's claims in the dialogue with Dunne (Noddings, 2003;Dunne, Hogan). It also provided further elucidations of Aristotelian understandings of practice in educational contexts (by D. Carr, 2003;Higgins, 2003;Vokey, 2003).…”

If MacIntyre ran a business school… how practical wisdom can be developed in management education

“…Just generosity consists of acting liberally, not stopping at the legal, but at the moral due; misericordia (mercy), in supplying what students urgently need, even when they do not ask or are unaware; and beneficence, in putting students' needs above their own (Bernacchio, 2018). Faculty know the human potential for practical wisdom is perfected only in charity ( caritas ), God's grace according to MacIntyre's Thomistic reading, and transmit this to students (Vokey, 2003). Through guidance in spiritual paths, students are afforded experience and appreciation of the overarching human good.…”

“…Business schools are agents of rational debate on how to create ethical and environmentally-attuned societies (Vokey, 2003). They are not inert institutions in the liberal marketplace, but dedicated to molding students' characters, helping them reassess their professional goals morally toward flourishing.…”

Religious segregation and teacher education in Northern Ireland

“…If it is to be of value, education must aspire to a telos, it must contain within it a view of how human beings relate to the world and a vision towards which the education itself must aim. This education would be part of a local community based around a distinct comprehensive view (Vokey 2003). Educational aims would be tied to the over-arching vision and traditions of its particular community.…”