The War for Children's Minds

How do we raise good children? How do we make good citizens? In defiant yet acute fashion, Stephen Law urges us to re-evaluate the liberal tradition of thinking about morality. Tackling authoritarian rhetoric head-on, he argues that children should learn about right and wrong, and respect for others, but that their education should be grounded in the hard-won values of the Enlightenment. Taking on neo-conservatives and religious and media commentators, The War for Children’s Minds is a candid and controversial call for a liberal, philosophically informed approach to raising children.

Rejecting accusations that liberal parenting is a Sixties hangover that entails an aimless ‘whatever’ attitude to morality, Stephen Law exposes the weaknesses of arguments calling for a return to authoritarian styles of moral education. He clearly shows that thinking for oneself does not mean that all moral points of view are equally good, or that we must reject faith in order to think freely.

Stephen Law is the author of the bestselling The Philosophy Files, The Outer Limits and The Philosophy Gym. He is a contributor to The Independent on Sunday and editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy journal Think: Philosophy for Everyone. He lectures in Philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London.

Introduction 1. The ‘Twisted Legacy’ of Enlightenment 2. Liberal with a Capital 'L' 3. Liberal and Authoritarian Educational Methods 4. Why Be Liberal (with a Capital 'L') 5. Different Kinds of Authority 6. The Moral Malaise and Moral Relativism 7. What’s Wrong with Moral Relativism? 8. The Great Myth and the War for Children’s Minds 9. Reason and Morality 10. Good Habits and the Rise of ‘Character Education’ 11. Tradition and Community 12. Keeping the Masses in Line 13. Conclusion and Recommendation