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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 May 2020
“Throughout most of the 19th century the most important course in the college curriculum was moral philosophy, taught usually by the college president and required of all senior students. The moral philosophy course was regarded as the capstone of the curriculum. It aimed to pull together, to integrate, and to give meaning and purpose to the student's entire college experience and course of study. In so doing it even more importantly sought to equip the graduating seniors with the ethical sensitivity and insight needed in order to put their newly acquired knowledge to use in ways that would benefit not only themselves and their own personal achievement, but the larger society as well.” Douglas Sloan
1. In this essay, the terms ethics and morality will be used interchangeably, though strictly speaking ethics refers to broad notions of right and wrong, while morality refers to specific rules of behavior, such as “Thou shalt not kill.“
2. Steinfels, Peter, The Place of Ethics in Schools of Public Policy(Hastings-on-Hudson, NY: The Hastings Center, 1977Google Scholar).
3. Steinfels, p. 3.
4. The Hastings Center, The Teaching of Ethics in Higher Education(Hastings-on-Hudson, NY: The Hastings Center, 1980) p. 6.
5. For a brief elucidation of the theory of noncognitivism, see “Contemporary Noncognitivism,” The Encyclopedia of Philosophy(New York: MacMillan and Company, 1967), Volume 3, pp. 106- 109.
6. Taylor, Charles, “Neutrality in Political Science,” Philosophy, Politics, and Society, (Third Series), ed. Laslett, Peter and Runciman, W.C. (London: Basil Blackwell, 1978).Google Scholar
7. Taylor, p. 43.
8. For a good short summary of the nature of transcendental arguments and their relevance to moral philosophy, see Griffiths, A. Phillips, “Ultimate Moral Principles: Their Justification,” Encyclopedia of Philosophy (New York: MacMillan and Company 1967) Volume 8, pp. 177–182.Google Scholar
9. Toulmin, Stephen, An Examination of the Place of Reason in Ethics(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950).Google Scholar
10. Toulmin, p. 153-160.
11. Fischer, Frank, Politics, Values, and Public Policy: The Problem of Methodology(Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1980).Google Scholar
12. McRae, Duncan, The Social Function of Social Science(New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1976).Google Scholar
13. Fischer, p. 99.
14. Kohlberg, Lawrence, Collected Papers on Moral Development and Moral Education.(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Center for Moral Education, Harvard University, 1973)Google Scholar: Howard Kiershenbaum, Sidney Simon and Leland, Howe, Values Clarification(New York: Hart Publishing Company, 1972).Google Scholar
15. See, for example, Beauchamp, Tom L. and Childress, James F., Principles of Biomedical Ethics(New York: Oxford University Press, 1979).Google Scholar
16. Lilla, Mark T., “Ethos, ‘Ethics,’ and Public Service,” The Public Interest, No. 63, Spring 1981, pp. 3–17.Google Scholar
17. Lilla, p. 14.
18. For an account of some of the issues at stake in this debate, from the conservative point of view, see Lilla's article, and others in the same volume of The Public Interest.
19. Hastings Center, Teaching Ethics,p. 6.
20. McKenna, George and Feingold, Stanley, Taking Sides(Guilford, Conn.: Duschkin Publishing Group, 1978) p. 63.Google Scholar
21. Oakeshott, Michael, Rationalism in Politics(New York: Basic Books, 1961) p.62Google Scholar, cited in Lilla.
22. Hastings Center, Teaching Ethics,p. 59.
23. Hastings Center, p. 58.
24. Michael Walzer, “Teaching Morality,” The New Republic,June 10, 1978, p. 13.
