ABSTRACT
In this chapter it is my aim to consider the concept of education as it is employed in ordinary speech and argument, and try to demonstrate that it is a normative or moral concept. My main thesis can be stated quite simply: when we speak of education, there is presupposed either an ideal of a person to which the education is leading; or alternatively an ideal of a society for which the education fits the individual member. But in any case—and this is the important part—lying behind the concept of education is the notion of a norm or set of norms which gives the education its purpose.
