ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the contours of a rational scheme of moral education. Moral formation is the cultivation in children of the conative, affective and behavioural dispositions that constitute subscription to moral standards. Moral inquiry is inquiry into whether and how moral standards are justified. It involves investigating the nature of moral standards, asking what might justify subscription to such standards, and examining the strength of suggested justifications. The class of justified moral standards includes, at a minimum, the conflict-averting and cooperation-sustaining standards whose currency in society is necessary to ameliorate the problem of sociality. The formation and inquiry components of teaching for full moral commitment should be complementary and mutually reinforcing. Admonishing children for lying supports and is supported by explaining to them the reasons for the prohibition on lying. The separation of moral formation and directive moral inquiry is particularly pronounced in schools. Rational moral education, then, involves moral formation, directive moral inquiry and nondirective moral inquiry.
