ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the abstract individualism which characterizes liberal theory leads to distortions in our private morality and our public ethos. It moves these concerns more directly to educational theory, and suggests that a liberal education presupposes an ideal of civil association in which society is understood at a deeper and more profound level than is given in liberal theory. The concept of education which interests me is that of a liberal or general education. The concept of a liberal education contains nothing particularly novel or original, but is indebted to the analysis of the concept of education proffered by R. S. Peters in Ethics and Education. It believes that Peters' analysis provides, on the whole, a comprehensive and helpful formal definition of what we mean by a liberal education, and provides a sympathetic starting place for a communitarian ethic.
