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19 - Children’s Rights, Childhood, and the Sovereignty of the Good

from Part II - Ethics and Education in Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2024

By
Megan Jane Laverty
Edited by
Sheron Fraser-Burgess ,
Jessica Heybach  and
Dini Metro-Roland
Sheron Fraser-Burgess
Affiliation:
Ball State University, Indiana
Jessica Heybach
Affiliation:
Florida International University
Dini Metro-Roland
Affiliation:
Western Michigan University
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Summary

The aim of this chapter is to establish that children are owed a sense of their own interiority. The chapter argues that although the literature on philosophy of childhood constitutes an advance on the deficit model of childhood insofar as it supports children’s rights and childhood goods, it risks reifying adult-child relations by continuing to essentialize childhood. While Gareth B. Matthews’ theory of development as socially and linguistically mediated begins to shift the focus toward the child’s own inner life, it falls short insofar as it fails to challenge the fact/value dichotomy. Drawing upon Iris Murdoch’s philosophy, the chapter concludes that a rejection of this dichotomy is in fact necessary for developing the notion of a morally inflected consciousness that is as available to children as it is adults.

Keywords

childhoodconsciousnessgoodnesscognitive and moral developmentIris Murdoch
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Ethics and Education , pp. 400 - 421
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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