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11Aristotle's Educational Politics and the Aristotelain Renaissance in Philosophy of EducationOxford Review of Education 5 (36): 543-559. 2010.This paper assesses the historical meaning and contemporary significance of Aristotle’s educational ideas. It begins with a broad characterization of the project of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, which he calls “political science” (hê politikê epistêmê), and the central place of education in his vision of statesmanship. It proceeds through a series of topics fundamental to his educational ideas, culminating in the account of education in Politics VIII. A concluding section appraise…Read more
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4Can Virtue be Measured?Theory and Research in Education 3 (12): 266-283. 2014.This paper explores some general considerations bearing on the question of whether virtue can be measured. What is moral virtue? What are measurement and evaluation, and what do they presuppose about the nature of what is measured or evaluated? What are the prospective contexts of, and purposes for, measuring or evaluating virtue, and how would these shape the legitimacy, methods, and likely success of measurement and evaluation? We contrast the realist presuppositions of virtue and measurem…Read more
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1A Neo-Aristotelian Account of Education, Justice, and the Human GoodTheory and Research in Education 3 (11): 232-250. 2013.
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2Friday Night Lights Out: The End of Football in SchoolsHarvard Educational Review 2 (88): 141-162. 2018.
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49Patriotic Education in a Global AgeUniversity of Chicago Press. 2018.The central question for this book is whether schools should attempt to cultivate patriotism, and if so why, how, and with what conception of patriotism in mind. The promotion of patriotism has figured prominently in the history of public schooling in the United States, always with the idea that patriotism is both an inherently admirable attribute and an essential motivational basis for good citizenship. It has been assumed, in short, that patriotism is a virtue in its own right and that it is a…Read more
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13Living Well Now and in the Future: Why Sustainability MattersMIT Press. 2017.The main focus of this book is the normative or ethical aspects of sustainability, including matters of justice in governance that is important to sustainability. The idea of sustainability is widely perceived as having a normative dimension, often referred to as equity, but the character of this normative dimension is seldom explored. The book aims to fill this gap in the literature of sustainability. It proposes a conceptualization of sustainability that is geared to clarifying its essentia…Read more
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11Justice, instruction, and the good: The case for public education in Aristotle and Plato's LawsStudies in Philosophy and Education 12 (2-4): 103-126. 1993.This paper develops an interpretation and analysis of the arguments for public education which open Book VIII of Aristotle's Politics, drawing on both the wider Aristotelian corpus and on examination of continuities with Plato's Laws.Part II: Sections IV–VII examine the arguments for the first of the two conclusions which Aristotle advances in VIII. 1, namely that education is important enough to merit the legislator's attention. It is shown, through a development of links between Politics V and…Read more
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7In Their Best Interest? The Case Against Equal Rights For Children (review)Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 12 (4): 44-45. 1996.
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37Preserving Opportunity: A Précis of Living Well Now and in the Future: Why Sustainability MattersEthics, Policy and Environment 20 (3): 227-239. 2017.This article is a précis of the book, Living well now and in the future: Why sustainability matters. It provides an overview of the book, focusing especially on its conceptualization of the nature...
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502Why character education?Impact 2017 (24): 1-44. 2017.Character education in schools has been high on the UK political agenda for the last few years. The government has invested millions in grants to support character education projects and declared its intention to make Britain a global leader in teaching character and resilience. But the policy has many critics: some question whether schools should be involved in the formation of character at all; others worry that the traits schools are being asked to cultivate are excessively competitive or mil…Read more
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Towards a Theory of Moral ResponsibilityDissertation, University of Pittsburgh. 1985.This work consists of three connected essays on moral agency and responsibility. The first focuses on the Kantian conception of moral agency, in investigating the origins of the notion that moral responsibility presupposes radical freedom, or what Kant calls the freedom of absolute spontaneity. I argue that the need to postulate radical freedom was created by the problem of evil and by an associated difficulty for moral theory, which I call "the problem of moral license." I also attempt to show …Read more
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28The Idea of Popular Sovereignty Two Hundred Years After BastilleSocial Philosophy Today 3 119-137. 1990.
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Moral educationIn Lawrence C. Becker & Charlotte B. Becker (eds.), Encyclopedia of ethics, Routledge. pp. 1127--1131. 1992.
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113Education as a Social Right in a Diverse SocietyJournal of Philosophy of Education 43 (1): 45-56. 2009.The aim of this article is to outline the basis for a comprehensive account of educational rights. It begins by acknowledging the difficulties posed by diversity, and defends a conception of universal human rights that limits parental educational discretion. Against the backdrop of the literature of public reason and fair equality of opportunity, it sketches arguments for the existence of rights to education of some specific kinds. Those rights, and associated educational purposes, are systemati…Read more
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46A Causal Theory of NegligenceSocial Philosophy Today 7 111-124. 1992.The aim of this paper is to outline a novel rationale for the negligence standard of liability in tort law. On this view, the negligence standard has a causal character which is seldom recognized, but which was recognized by Aristotle, who first formulated the standard. The proposed rationale is extracted from its Aristotelian roots and presented as an alternative to the two others which have been discussed in recent years, both of which are widely regarded as flawed.
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Pragmatist philosophy of educationIn Harvey Siegel (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education, Oxford University Press. 2009.
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43Judgment and the aims of educationSocial Philosophy and Policy 31 (1): 36-59. 2014.The aim of this paper is to revive a tradition of educational thought that identifies good judgment as the highest aim of education. It identifies sharply opposed manifestations of this tradition in the works of Aristotle and Locke, and uses these as points of departure in defending and exploring the tradition. The defense rests on the claims that the basic aim of educational institutions should be to enable people to live well and that good judgment is essential to living well. The relations…Read more
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71Book Symposium: Harry Brighouse, School Choice and Social JusticeStudies in Philosophy and Education 20 (5): 387-421. 2001.
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The Prima Facie Case against HomeschoolingPublic Affairs Quarterly 25 (1): 1-20. 2011.Until recently, it was widely assumed in societies with long-established, publicly funded school systems that school attendance served the interests of children, society, and parents alike. In the United States and other common-law jurisdictions, safeguarding and promoting the independent welfare and developmental interests of every child was a public responsibility under the parens patriae doctrine. Compulsory schooling laws enacted under parens patriae authority required all persons having car…Read more
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36On the Importance of Getting it Right: A Response to Professor GötzStudies in Philosophy and Education 22 (1): 83-94. 2003.
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14Education for global citizenship and survivalIn Yvonne Raley & Gerhard Preyer (eds.), Philosophy of education in the era of globalization, Routledge. pp. 21--67. 2010.
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43A Companion to the Philosophy of Education (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2003._A Companion to the Philosophy of Education_ is a comprehensive guide to philosophical thinking about education. Offers a state-of-the-art account of current and controversial issues in education, including issues pertaining to multiculturalism, special education, sex education, and academic freedom. Written by an international team of leading experts, who are directly engaged with these profound and complex educational problems. Serves as an indispensable guide to the field of philosophy of edu…Read more
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31The Contribution Of Nicomachean Ethics Iii 5 To Aristotle'S Theory Of ResponsibilityHistory of Philosophy Quarterly 6 (July): 261-277. 1989.
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118Justice, instruction, and the good: The case for public education in Aristotle and Plato'sLawsStudies in Philosophy and Education 13 (1): 1-31. 1994.This paper develops an interpretation and analysis of the arguments for public education which open Book VIII of Aristotle's Politics , drawing on both the wider Aristotelian corpus and on examination of continuities with Plato's Laws . Part III : Sections VIII-XI examine the two arguments which Aristotle adduces in support of the claim that education should be provided through a public system. The first of these arguments concerns the need to unify society through education for friendship and t…Read more
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36Connected Learning and the Foundations of Psychometrics: A RejoinderJournal of Philosophy of Education 40 (1): 17-29. 2006.This paper continues an exchange between its author and Andrew Davis. Part I addresses the attribution and ontological status of mental constructs and argues that philosophical work on these topics does not undermine high stakes testing. Part II examines the significance for testing of the connectedness of meaningful learning. Part III addresses the high stakes in high stakes testing in connection with the risk entailed by limited scoring reliability. It concludes that there is no straightforwar…Read more
Rochester, New York, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Moral Psychology, Misc |
Areas of Interest
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Education, Misc |