Two more Rs
http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6999588
Jun 1st 2006
From The Economist print edition
HOW to teach children right from wrong? In an impassioned book, Stephen
Law argues, as Kant did, that moral consciousness is founded on the
rock of human reason, and that children need to be taught from the
start to think critically about moral judgments. For many readers of
this newspaper, descendants of the Enlightenment and rationalists all,
such a view might seem self-evident. But Mr Law has some powerful
enemies to fight, and some interesting intellectual distinctions to
draw, in the war for children's minds.
His enemies are authoritarians who want to claim an external source for
moral judgments-normally, religious faith-and impose their views
unquestioningly on others. Mr Law directs much of his criticism against
proponents of organised religion; a philosopher at the University of
London, he is particularly dismayed by the Blair government's
enthusiasm for subsidising new religious schools.
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