Those who are in higher education dream of a world of changed values where the inchoate, contested, but urgent constellation of things that they collectively believe in, work for, and seek on college campuses has spread well beyond any specific "quad" and has instead become something of a global norm. Imagine that higher education is no longer…

Blowing the whistle on liars, cheaters, or thieves is likely to impose a cost on the whistle-blower, while everyone else benefits from this act of conscience. If this is so, then why don't people just mind their own business and let someone else do the dirty work? A conceivable explanation is that if no one else perceives the transgression or,…

On the first day of the author's American-government course he often plays a little trick on the students. He throws one of them out of class. The plan is to stop the student at the door, ask what is politics, ask why he (or she) is obeying, and encourage a more energetic discussion of authority and politics at a university. Two years ago, in the…

This paper assesses the historical meaning and contemporary significance of Aristotle's educational ideas. It begins with a broad characterisation of the project of Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics" and "Politics", which he calls "political science" ("he politike episteme"), and the central place of education in his vision of statesmanship. It…

The primary priority for an educational leader in a democracy is decency. The author understands decency as showing compassion, respect, love, and caring for one another. That may sound soft and fuzzy, but she believes it is one of the harder things to do as a leader. It is fundamental to everything written about democracy--the need for dialogue;…

Virtual worlds, such as Second Life[R], are the latest star in the online communication sky. Created by Linden Lab, Second Life is a three-dimensional environment that provides a context for avatars to communicate and socialise with other avatars in a variety of settings (Bell, 2009). Virtual worlds have been used to train people with intellectual…

During the eighteenth century, amateurs as well as philosophers ventured critical commentary on the arts. Talk concerning taste or beauty or the sublime was so much a part of general discourse that even novelists of that era incorporated such subjects in their work. So it would not be surprising to find that perspectives on aesthetics are…

This paper focuses on the educational method--the "elenchos"--of Plato's Socrates, arguing, against some prominent interpretations, that it is love, both "eros" and "philia", that is the key that links Socrates' philosophy with his education. This analysis, of course, raises some difficult questions regarding the relationship between teacher and…

This article presents the author's response to "Tocqueville on Democracy and Inclusive Education: A More Ardent and Enduring Love of Equality than of Liberty" written by Steven Connolley and Rune Sarromaa Hausstatter. The author agrees with Connolley and Hausstatter that people need to stop and question the assumptions and values associated with…

This article presents the author's response to Connolley and Hausstatter's article "Tocqueville on Democracy and Inclusive Education: A More Ardent and Enduring Love of Equality than of Liberty." The perspectives of diversity treated in their article are both diversity among "people's abilities," and diversity of "opinions." According to Connolley…

In his provocatively titled recent book, "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't", Robert I. Sutton argues for zero tolerance of "bullies, creeps, jerks, weasels, tormentors, tyrants, serial slammers, despots, [and] unconstrained egomaniacs" in the workplace. These individuals systematically prey on their…

This article presents an interview with Professor David Popenoe, author of the controversial book "Disturbing the Nest: Family Change and Decline in Modern Societies" (1988). Popenoe heads the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, where he taught sociology for forty-five years until his recent retirement. Here, Popenoe discusses his…

The article investigates the meaning of temperance by noting some cultural assumptions, raising the question as to why this classical virtue has largely disappeared from modern ethical discourse. By means of some historical notes temperance is identified as the unifying virtue in the person and in society. In its Christian form it is related to…

This author begins by mapping the policy changes of the past 20 years that have occupied and changed the educational terrain in New Zealand. Fundamentally, the reform of education was premised on ideological conjecture that some changes (structural, administrative, pedagogical and managerial) were required, and that these changes would deliver…

People's ambivalence about the role that group membership plays in the public sphere is unfolding before everyone's eyes in the 2008 presidential campaign. While a "New York Times"/CBS News poll said that 69 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. is ready for a black president, a lot of Americans still believe that society still treats blacks…