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The War for Children's Minds Paperback – Illustrated, 24 May 2007
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- ISBN-100415427681
- ISBN-13978-0415427685
- Edition1st
- Publication date24 May 2007
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions13.79 x 1.19 x 21.59 cm
- Print length208 pages
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Review
'The War for Children's Minds is a brilliantly clear and convincingly argued defence of liberalism in moral education. Stephen Law examines and demolishes all the arguments in favour of authoritarian ways of teaching, and shows that in spite of the insistence of popular commentators from the religious right, a liberal and rational examination and discussion of moral questions does not lead to relativism and the decay of ethical behaviour, but can in fact be the best defence against them. This book won't be read by popular journalists: they will attack it without reading it. But it should be read by every teacher, every parent, and every politician. What's more, it should form the subject for discussion in every church, synagogue, mosque, and religious youth group. It's one of the most engaging as well as one of the most necessary books that I've ever read in the field of moral education.' - Philip Pullman
'Progressives schools, they say, promote the wishy-washy, anything goes mentality that is the source of our social malaise. In The War for Children’s Minds, Stephen Law does a splendid and philosophically thrilling job of cutting that argument to shreds.' - The Guardian
'...a succinct and eloquent defence of liberalism'. - The Economist
'A stirring defence of liberal values.' - Times Educational Supplement
'A passionate philosophical defence of a liberal approach to parenting and and education'. - The Guardian
'This defence of reason should be obligatory reading, not just in schools, but in parliament and the press. ' - Sunday Herald
'[The] debate about children’s education…seems to be dominated by the other side. It’s a side that believes Liberal is a dirty word, that the Enlightenment did more harm than good and that children should be taught in a much more formal way. In his book [Law] begs to differ. He suggests that children should be allowed to examine and discuss religious and moral issues in a liberal, philosophically informed and rational way.' - The Oxford Times
'...this volume has a hugely significant contribution to make. It is also highly readable, and provides a useful pocket guide to current philosophical thinking - a sort of religious Bill Bryson.' - Church Times
'The War for Children's Minds is a brilliantly clear and convincingly argued defence of liberalism in moral education. Stephen Law examines and demolishes all the arguments in favour of authoritarian ways of teaching, and shows that in spite of the insistence of popular commentators from the religious right, a liberal and rational examination and discussion of moral questions does not lead to relativism and the decay of ethical behaviour, but can in fact be the best defence against them. This book won't be read by popular journalists: they will attack it without reading it. But it should be read by every teacher, every parent, and every politician. What's more, it should form the subject for discussion in every church, synagogue, mosque, and religious youth group. It's one of the most engaging as well as one of the most necessary books that I've ever read in the field of moral education.' - Philip Pullman
'Progressives schools, they say, promote the wishy-washy, anything goes mentality that is the source of our social malaise. In The War for Children’s Minds, Stephen Law does a splendid and philosophically thrilling job of cutting that argument to shreds.' - The Guardian
'...a succinct and eloquent defence of liberalism.' - The Economist
'A stirring defence of liberal values.' - Times Educational Supplement
'A passionate philosophical defence of a liberal approach to parenting and education.' - The Guardian
'This defence of reason should be obligatory reading, not just in schools, but in parliament and the press. ' - Sunday Herald
'[The] debate about children’s education…seems to be dominated by the other side. It’s a side that believes Liberal is a dirty word, that the Enlightenment did more harm than good and that children should be taught in a much more formal way. In his book [Law] begs to differ. He suggests that children should be allowed to examine and discuss religious and moral issues in a liberal, philosophically informed and rational way.' - The Oxford Times
'...this volume has a hugely significant contribution to make. It is also highly readable, and provides a useful pocket guide to current philosophical thinking - a sort of religious Bill Bryson.' - Church Times
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Routledge; 1st edition (24 May 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 208 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0415427681
- ISBN-13 : 978-0415427685
- Dimensions : 13.79 x 1.19 x 21.59 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,066,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,914 in Academic Philosophy
- 1,918 in Academic Sociology
- 2,496 in Philosophy of Education
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Stephen Law (Oxford, England) is a senior lecturer in philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London; provost for the Centre for Inquiry UK; and the editor of Think: Philosophy for Everyone (a journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy). He is the author of numerous books for adults as well as children, including The Greatest Philosophers, Companion Guide to Philosophy, The War for Children’s Minds, and Really, Really Big Questions, among other works.
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Still it is worth reading in order to understand why the popular notion that morality requires religion or unquestioned authority is completely unsubstantiated.
Law goes on to say: "Relativism, it's often argued, has also poisoned our homes. Parents no longer feel they have the right to force their own values on their children. Adults no longer confident in their own moral authority or the objectivity of their moral judgments are standing back and allowing their children to run amok." In another passage he points out that in schools "...teachers reach for relativism to get them off the hook. That Jesus is true-for-Christians but false-for-muslims. Relativism saves educators from having to admit that any religion might actually mistaken, or even (heaven forbid) that they might be all mistaken.
Law trenchantly observes: `politically correct' arguments for relativism, while seductive, are muddle headed nonsense'.
Law points out that debates about child education focus, erroneously, on only two alternatives: what he calls "Liberal" and "Authoritarian". The Authoritarian approach simply tells children what to think. Many religions are authoritarian for example. The Liberal approach is to guide children to question critically and think for themselves. (Personally, I would prefer him to use a term instead of "Liberal" that is not so politically loaded: "Free-thinker" perhaps?).
Law says that there is a second dimension with two alternatives: "Relativist" and "Non-relativist". In many people's minds, Relativism is the automatic handmaiden to Liberalism. Law's insight is to point out that it ain't necessarily so: education can be BOTH Non-relativist AND Liberal. He arrives at this conclusion after meeting all possible objections and defusing them with a philosopher's clarity of logic. Stephen Law writes with admirable simplicity and his philosophical arguments are readily understood.
Law, naturally enough, approaches his topic as a philosophical argument. In passing he mentions that some moral stances are found universally in just about every culture. That opens a very interesting subject: many moral fundamentals are hard-wired in the human species. One common one is "Thou shalt not kill". Just about every culture has this kind of moral position but, just as with the Hebrews, it was only supposed to apply to one's own tribe. It was quite acceptable to kill people from other tribes. After all, Moses had hardly descended from the mountain with the Tablets when he gave orders to "save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites...". But the same attitude is a found in all cultures to the extent that anthropologists call it a Universal Human Value. It is found in the San Bushman, Aborigine and any western country at war with an enemy. In other words nature programmed us with certain behaviors in order to function healthily in our local society.
The idea that some moral values are hard-wired - and not the result of cultural conditioning - is a powerful one. In my book Deadly Harvest , I explain more on this fascinating subject and in particular how life on the savannas of east Africa programmed our instinctual behaviors for survival in a forager band of some 50 people. When we understand that, we understand much more about where we should be going with our children and society in general.




