Category Archives: Essays

How we regard and treat others is the practical heart of morality. Treating others well is the common attribute of favored virtues, preferred values, moral codes, and systems of ethics. Behavior that benefits others is the practical expectation of most … Continue reading →

Saying happiness is a feeling may seem too obvious to need saying, but it does. Quite a few people either flatly disagree or insist the observation is only partly true. Some agree with Aristotle that “eudaimonia,” translated as happiness, is … Continue reading →

What is the value of liberal education?  The most insightful answer is found in the foremost theory of subjective value in the history of philosophy.  Aristotle’s observation that happiness is the only “self-sufficient” end, for all we do is for the sake … Continue reading →

For the most part, the approaches employed in our schools to teach favored values and virtues are motivationally weak. They do not reflect much depth of understanding of what motivates moral behavior. Approaches that mostly appeal to reason implausibly presume … Continue reading →

A society that is free cannot educate its children in anything less than freedom. | Steven Harrison Empowering the pursuit of happiness as each sees it is the primary purpose of education in a liberal democracy. But this mission presumes … Continue reading →

Love is justice, justice is love. | Joseph Fletcher Though I am optimistic about the difference we could make in the lives of children by focusing on empowering their pursuit of happiness, the path to this difference admittedly leads through … Continue reading →