Table Of ContentNew Studies in Practical Philosop~y
SOCIOLOGY, EQUALITY AND EDUCATION
New Studies in Practical Philosophy
General Editor: W. D. Hudson
The point of view of this series is that
of contemporary analytical philosophy.
Each study will deal with an aspect of
moral philosophy. Particular attention
will be paid to the logic of. moral discourse,
and the practical problems of morality.
The relationship between morality and
other 'universes of discourse', such as art
and science, will also be explored.
Published
R. W. Beardsmore Art and Morality
Antony Flew Crime or Disease?
Antony Flew Sociology, Equality and Education
R. M. Hare Practical Inferences
R. M. Hare Essays on Philosophical Method
R. M. Hare Essays on the Moral Concepts
R. M. Hai"e Applications of Moral Philosophy
Pamela Huby Plato and Modern Morality
N. M. L. Nathan The Concept of Justice
T. A. Roberts The Concept of Benevolence
SOCIOLOGY, EQUALITY
AND EDUCATION
Philosophical Essays in Defence of a
Variety of Differences
ANTONY FLEW
Prrifessor rif Philosophy
University of Reading
M
© Antony Flew 1976
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1976
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro
duced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without
permission.
First published 1976 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in New York Dublin
Melbourne Johannesburg and Madras
SBN 333 19092 0
ISBN 978-1-349-02778-1 ISBN 978-1-349-02776-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-02776-7
This book is sold subject to the standard conditions of the Net Book
Agreement.
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Editor's Foreword vii
Where We Are Going
Part One
2 · Metaphysical Idealism and the Sociology of Knowledge 9
3 Reality, Rationality, and the Possibility of Anthropology 35
4 Sociology and Equality 49
5 TheJensen Uproar 62
Part Two
6 Teaching and Testing 79
7 Principles and Participation 98
8 Academic Freedoms and Academic Purposes 113
Notes 129
Bibliography 137
Index 141
Acknowledgements
The author and publisher wish to thank the following for
agreeing to publication here in revised form of material pre
viously published: Mr Hector Hawton, Editor of Question
('Reality, Rationality and the Possibility of Anthropology',
Question Five, 1972; 'Sociology and Equality', Question Eight,
1975); Mr Renford Bambrough, Editor of Philosophy ('The
Jensen Uproar', Philosophy, 1973); Professor Jonas F. Soltis,
President of the Philosophy of Education Society, and Professor
Brian Crittenden, Editor of the Proceedings of the Twenty
Ninth Meeting of that society ('Teaching and Testing', Philo
sophy of Education I973); Sir Anthony Meyer, M.P., sometime
Editor of Solon ('Principles and Participation', Solon, 1969).
Editor's Foreword
This collection of papers by Professor Flew is both theoretical
and practical in its import. Its central concern is education; its
dominant note, a plea for rationality in our approach to that
subject. What constitutes rationality, and how education should
be conducted in order to conform to it, are matters on which the
author has strong views. Students of the philosophy of educa
tion will appreciate the clear manner in which he relates his
contribution to that subject to certain basic issues in the
philosophy of the social sciences; those actively involved in
education will, I imagine, react vigorously to Professor Flew's
cogently voiced opinions on the present practice of education.
His own introductory chapter shows the scope of the book and
gives an indication how theoretical and practical concerns are
to be interwoven within it.
w.
Universiry of Exeter D. HUDSON
1 Where We Are Going
This is a selection of essays in the philosophy of education. Some
friends, and indeed some enemies, even without my suggestion
would describe it as a one-man volume of philosophical Black
Papers. But it certainly is not an idle and uncomplicated
reprinting in new book form of work already once published
somewhere else. For nearly half the material is quite fresh, while
all the rest has been revised more or less drastically. Nor are all
the chapters essays in the philosophy of education, and nothing
else. This exclusive characterisation is tolerably apt for the three
chapters in Part Two. But the four in the longer Part One have
an equally strong claim to rate as contributions to the philosophy
of the social sciences.
What, however, gives the whole selection unity is a concern for
educational standards; and a commitment to defend these
standards against an educationally destructive new egalitarian
ism. This new egalitarianism, which I shall in Chapter 6 be
contrasting with some other and more admirable ideals of
equality, requires us to conceal, or to devalue, or even to deny,
differences in individual talent and temperament and achieve
ment. It minimises or outright rejects all qualitative distinctions
between cultures, whether these be the cultures of different
societies or of different persons or groups within the same
society. The notion of objective knowledge falls under the same
ban: were this to be allowed it might serve as a basis for
discrimination between superior and inferior. There is opposi
tion to any form of testing which reveals, and may perhaps
encourage, differences in educational achievement. Since there
can on these principles be no real and relevant difference
between those qualified to teach and those still under instruc
tion, there are demands that students should have a, if not the,
deciding voice in the appointment of teachers and in the design
of courses of study - demands which are today often urged in
the name of academic freedom.
2 SOCIOLOGY, EQUALITY AND EDUCATION
Part Two deals with some of these claims presented without
theoretical backing. Chapter 6, 'Teaching and Testing', argues
that in order to be sincerely trying to teach, or trying to learn,
people must be ready to monitor their progress: some form of
assessment or examination, but not any one particular form, is
essential to intentional education -not merely as a matter of fact
but as a matter of logic. Chapter 7, 'Principles and Participation',
insists upon elementary distinctions needed for fundamental
discussion of the practical issues of student participation in the
government of institutions of tertiary education. Chapter 8,
'Academic Freedoms and Academic Purposes', argues that any
special case for distinctively academic freedoms must be based
upon the peculiarities of academic functions and academic
purposes. It has to refer to the nature of truth-concerned critical
inquiry. It certainly cannot afford to despise or depreciate
knowledge, academic discipline, or academic qualifications.
Part One treats various misreadings of the implications and
presuppositions of social sciences, misreadings which are today
at work providing support for some or all the tendencies just
now colligated as the new egalitarianism. The longest chapter,
'Metaphysical Idealism and the Sociology of Knowledge',
comprehends almost the whole collection. For the central
misconception here is that to be able to ask sociological questions
about the forces involved in recognising and maintaining
distinctions made in education, is to show that these distinctions
themselves are problematic, and to give reason to believe that
they are without foundation in any real, objective differences. I
hope that I succeed in demonstrating that the achievements and
aspirations of sociology in general, and of the sociology of
knowledge in particular, neither presuppose nor imply anything
of the sort. On the contrary: the denial of the possibility of
objective knowledge, and the new brand of philosophical
idealism, which are both offered as elements in a sociological
revelation, are in fact altogether inconsistent with any science of
sociology.
Chapter 3, 'Reality, Rationality and the Possibility of Anthro
pology', confronts standardless relativism: the notion that the
'science' of the Azande, for instance, cannot properly be said to
involve any falsehood or irrationality, since these would then be
attributed only by your or our, not by Azande, criteria of truth
and rationality. It is, it is assumed, naive and pre-Kuhnian to
