New 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