George North
Final Paper
Richard J. Elliott, Professor Emeritus
EDFR 6420--Philosophy of American Education
December 3, 1997
EDFR 6420
Final Examination Fall, 1997
Education is primarily social. Schools are social institutions. For educators the
problems of social and political philosophy are of particular interest. In the
discussions of Socrates, the writings of Plato, and philosophers of recorded history,
their thoughts have been concerned with the concept of justice, and as Noddings
noted their different views of justice give rise to different views on matters central
to education such as equality and equity. Balancing the rights of the individual and
the concerns of the state, please answer the following question: Do you feel that
Dewey's "Democratic Communitarians" is preferable to the utilitarians who place a
high value on consequences as a social and political philosophy, when dealing with
equity issues, individual rights issues, and schooling today?
The principle of utilitarianism can be traced to the writings of Jeremy
Bentham, who lived in England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Bentham, a legal reformer, sought an objective basis that would provide a publicly
acceptable norm for determining what kinds of laws England should enact. He
believed that the most promising way of reaching such an agreement was to choose
the policy that would bring about the greatest net benefits to society once the harms
had been taken into account. His motto was "the greatest good for the greatest
Over the years, the principle of utilitarianism has been expanded and refined
so that today there are many variations of the principle. Today utilitarians often
describe benefits and harms in terms of the satisfaction of personal preferences or in
purely economic terms. Some utilitarians maintain that in making an ethical
decision, we must ask ourselves: "What effect will my doing this act in this
situation have on the general balance of good over evil?"
If lying would produce
the best consequences in a particular situation, we ought to lie. When Oliver North
was asked to explain why he lied to congressional committees about his role in the
Iran-Contra affair, he replied, "Lying does not come easily to me. But we all had to
weigh in the balance the difference between lies and lives."
Others claim that we must choose that act that conforms to the general rule
that would have the best consequences. In other words, we must ask ourselves:
"What effect would everyone's doing this kind of action have on the general
balance of good over evil?"So, for example, the rule "to always tell the truth" in
general promotes the good of everyone and therefore should always be followed,
even if in a certain situation lying would produce the best consequences. Despite
such differences among utilitarians hold to the general principle that morality must
depend on balancing the beneficial and harmful consequences of our conduct.
While utilitarianism is currently a very popular ethical theory, there are
some difficulties in relying on it as a sole method for moral decision making. First,
the utilitarian calculation requires that we assign values to the benefits and harms
resulting from our actions and compare them with the benefits and harms that
might result from other actions. But it's often difficult, if not impossible, to
measure and compare the values of certain benefits and costs. How do we go about
assigning a value to life or to art? And how do we go about comparing the value of
money with, for example, the value of life, the value of time, or the value of
human dignity? Moreover, can we ever be really certain about all of the
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