Moral education in the ‘badlands’

Abstract

The author’s initial argument concludes that parents should refrain from inculcating norms and dispositions suitable for peacetime when ruthless enemies seek to kill or imprison their children. Drawing on recent interpreters of Kant, this paper argues that teaching children to deceive pursuers is consistent with Kantian arguments against lying. This paper modifies the initial argument to take account of the need to also inculcate peacetime norms, even in wartime. It shows that the amended argument has applicability to a variety of real‐world contexts and explores its implications for schools. A final section responds to purported objections.

Keywords:

• Kantian ethics
• moral education
• self‐defence
• wartime ethics

Acknowledgements

Among those who gave me help along the way, I would like to thank Eamonn Callan of Stanford University; Harry Brighouse, Claudia Card, Russ Shafer‐Landau, and Daniel Pekarsky of the University of Wisconsin, Madison; Adam Swift of Oxford University; and, especially, Ira Singer of Hofstra University and Doret J. de Ruyter of VU University in Amsterdam. The essay is a modified and expanded version of a paper read to the Philosophy of Education Society at its 2009 meeting in Montreal. I benefitted from Audrey Thompson’s insightful and elegant response, which, along with my original version, will be published in Kerdeman (2010).

Notes

1. A comprehensive discussion of such questions can be found in Swift (2003).

2. Badlands: ‘term applied to an arid, badly eroded region. … The rainfall is not adequate or badly distributed as to time, so plant growth is almost impossible, the barren dry rock and soil are unprotected’ (Columbia Encyclopedia 1942).

3. A point first made by Plato in his discussion of the need for guardians to embody the characteristics of watchdogs in Republic, II, 375–376.

4. Since few readers will have any first‐hand experience of the ‘badlands’, let me recommend a film and a fictional treatment that provide harrowing glimpses into this kind of world. The film is award‐winning Sin Nombre (Fukunaga 2009), which portrays brutal Mexican gangs. The book is Say You’re One of Them by Akpan (2008).

5. I should make it clear that, of course, my distinction between ‘badlands’ and other environments is schematic; there are grey areas where gangs have partial control, where some but not all police are corrupt, etc.

6. Of course, within this vast category, one must learn innumerable nuances, e.g. a child may legitimately refuse to disclose to a well‐meaning teacher information she is willing to share with a friend or vice‐versa.

7. See Wrangham and Wilson (2004: 250).

8. See Gorgias, 469.