ABSTRACT

Writing as a political philosopher, Karl Marx famously wrote that the point of philosophy is not to interpret the world, but to change it (Marx, 1968, p. 30). From a political perspective, any approach to moral education or training that promises to change human conduct for the better is likely to win favour precisely insofar as it offers to deliver direct practical results. In a world of widespread social and political problems (war, crime, anti-social attitudes, individual dysfunction, alienation and despair) nding quick xes for the defective behaviour of people will seem more to the point than engaging in complex theorising-or still less getting others to engage in such theorising-about the ethical grounds upon which such evident evils stand condemned. From this viewpoint, it is hardly surprising that the recent growth of interest in character education-an approach directly focused on changing human moral conduct-seems to have gained considerable political approval and support, or that the theoretical sources upon which it has drawn have often to date been of a more pragmatic social scienti c than moral philosophical nature.