ABSTRACT
Moral education is education in or about morality. Morality is, in whole or in part, a matter of subscribing to moral standards and believing them to be justified. One thing moral educators might try to do is cultivate in children the conative, affective and behavioural dispositions that constitute subscription to moral standards. Another thing they might try to do is impart beliefs, or facilitate the formation of beliefs, about the justificatory status of moral standards. The first and most basic method of moral formation is the issuing of prescriptions. A second method of moral formation is the rewarding of compliance. Another indirect method of moral formation is the modelling of reactions to the compliance and non-compliance of others. Moral inquiry is the part of moral education that attends to the latter component of full moral commitment. Moral inquiry, then, is inquiry into the justificatory status of moral standards. It is cognitive, and is concerned with forming, testing and revising beliefs.
