ABSTRACT
I call this an introduction rather than a preface, because prefaces tend to be bypassed and these few pages, though hardly stimulating, are important. This book differs in a number of ways from other books on the same theme and I wish to make its plan clear at the outset. It has four features to which attention should be drawn: 1. It is written primarily for students at colleges of education or university education departments. I might have called it an introduction to the ‘philosophy of education’ inasmuch as it is an introduction to the technique of philosophy and it uses educational examples. Since the phrase ‘philosophy of education’ is a chameleon that means all things to all men (or nothing to some), it would not have been an inappropriate title. But it does differ from all other introductions to the philosophy of education in that it concentrates on moral philosophy and moral issues in education. 2. Despite its use of examples from education, it should serve as an introduction to moral philosophy for anybody interested in the subject. Moral philosophy involves the same procedures and faces the same problems whatever sphere it takes its examples from. Problems about freedom, equality, and so on, are not confined to the educational sphere. Besides, some issues, such as the question of indoctrination, are as relevant to a parent as to a teacher. 3. It is concerned to combat two heresies. One is the conventional enemy of moral philosophers: the view that a finite list of moral commandments can be put forward and the claim made that they are known to be true. The other is the obverse of this view; it is a heresy that seems to be gaining ground at this moment, and one which is perhaps not sufficiently guarded against: the view that it is known that moral values are just the fiats of a given society. 4. Finally, it differs from most other introductions to moral philosophy in that it attempts, with due caution, I hope, to offer a positive moral viewpoint (namely, a modified utilitarianism). I do not bypass philosophical analysis of moral concepts, but I try to avoid what the layman often sees as the analytical sterility of philosophy. I do this partly because this is a book for those who are not professional philosophers but laymen, and partly because it is the application of philosophy to practical issues that is of concern to them. They have to come to some sort of conclusion.
