Kindless Philosophy

Fraternity   “ In section 4 of Chapter 2 we noted a wide range of ideas connected with a broad notion of fraternity which often appeared in the rhetoric, and indeed sometimes the argument, supporting mixed ability grouping. We suggested there that this cluster of ideas, though often confiated with ideas of equality and social justice, was actually about something else more to do with a positive valuing of social integration and feelings of community as things to be approved of in their ownright. Thus, as we pointed out, segregation of pupils into groups based upon specific abilities was seen by some teachers as deplorable, not solely because such differentiation represented the injustice of unjustifiably different treatment, but simply because it acted to support social divisiveness and against the possibility of social cohesiveness and mutually supportive cooperation. Sometimes this idea is part of a wider sociopolitical spectrum in which presentday society is seen as damagingly c...

 Common Sense and the Third-Person Point of View “ Some useful skirmishes in this campaign do consist of rigorous, formal explorations of particular sets of hunches. That is in fact the best light in which to view the various formalist failures of philosophy-as if they had been prefaced with "What if we made these assumptions and proceeded under these constraints?" As Fodor says, "The form of a philosophical theory, often enough, is: Let's try looking over here." (1981a, p. 31) Every formal system in philosophy must be "motivated," and the informal task of providing that motivation typically contributes more philosophical illumination (or at least doctrine) than the system for which it paves the way. There is always more than one candidate system or perspective crying out for philosophical exploration and development, and in such an unruly arena of thought, tactical considerations play an unusually important role. These tactical considerations often ma...

 Justice and Equality “In Chapter 2 we noted that different views of mixed ability grouping can often be seen to reflect attachment to different social principles, particularly to principles of justice and equality. In this chapter the intention is to examine rather more closely ideas of justice and equality and to see if any justifiable connection can be made between justice and/or equality on the one hand and mixed ability grouping on the other. The word 'justifiable' is worth emphasising since we do not find the problem of justification normally pursued as far as it might be in the available literature discussing possible rationales for mixed ability grouping. It is one thing to note, as we have done, the various ways in which views about mixed ability grouping appear to be rooted in ideas of justice and equality; it is quite another thing to present justifications for either the connections or the underlying ideas, and when such justificatory arguments are offered they are ...