Harry Brighouse
Biographic Data
| ID | 299379 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Harry Brighouse |
| GIVEN NAMES | Harry |
| FAMILY NAME | Brighouse |
| SIGNATURE | BRIGHOUSE H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| ORCID | 0009-0007-3378-5704 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 68 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 216 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 69 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
How to Make Philosophy of Education Useful
This article considers the difficulties of doing work in philosophy of education that might actually be useful to practical decision‐makers and discusses the way that philosophers can collaborate with social scientists to do such work
Finding consensus on well-being in education
Research on well-being and concern over the well-being of students and teachers has grown dramatically in recent years. Researchers and reformers in positive psychology and education, self-determination theory, social and emotional learning, liberal-democratic political and educational philosophy, and neo-Aristotelian theories of flourishing and character education have played formative and intersecting roles in what is now an international movem…
Normative Case Studies and Thought Experiments
Thought experiments and normative case studies can play different and complementary roles in moral and political philosophizing. Thought experiments help us to sculpt and refine normative concepts and alert us to contradictions between intuitive judgments and basic principles, or among intuitive judgments, thus informing our reflective equilibrium about what fundamentally matters. Normative case studies assist us in judging how to trade off confl…
The right to higher education and the gap between ideal theory and non-ideal decisions
Christopher Martin argues that an interest in strong autonomy supports a right to debt-free higher education and that making tuition free is the best way of enacting that right. We argue that making higher education tuition free would, in the absence of other countervailing measure, maldistribute strong autonomy, even in ideal conditions. We also argue that even if Martin is right that higher education should be tuition-free in ideal circumstance…
What's Wrong with Tuition‐Free Four‐Year Public College
Advocates of tuition‐free four‐year public college make the argument for it too easy by asserting that it would be paid for out of taxes on the wealthy. Other uses of the revenues are possible. In this paper, Harry Brighouse and Kailey Mullane establish two criteria for comparing different uses of the revenues: the first criterion is, will the policy increase the overall level of educational goods?, and the second is, will the policy reduce inequ…
Children’s literature and philosophy
This article looks at Maughn Rollins Gregory and Megan Jane Laverty’s Gareth B. Matthews, The Child’s Philosopher (2022), specifically considering how Matthews conceptualized philosophy and how he found philosophy in children’s literature
The tyranny of meritocracy and elite higher education
In The Tyranny of Merit, Michael Sandel argues that the American society is not meritocratic, that belief that it is causes various social harms, and that some of those harms –in particular, the costs to social solidarity – would be caused even if society actually were meritocratic. He also explores the way that the structure of higher education is implicated in the ‘ethos’ of meritocracy. This article explores just how the ethos of meritocracy m…
Educational Goods Reconsidered
We gratefully reply to our five commentators, responding to their criticisms and comments under the following headings: parochialism and curriculum; rationality and truth; production and distribution; perfectionism, decision-making and disagreement; adultism and parents' interests; non-consequential educational goods; and self-education
Educational Goods
This is a brief summary of the book Educational Goods: Values, Evidence, and Decision-Making by Harry Brighouse, Helen F. Ladd, Susanna Loeb and Adam Swift. It provides the introduction to the present symposium on this book, which includes the ensuing contributions from Carey Bagelman, Randall Curren, Michael Hand, John Tillson and Winston Thompson, followed by a response from the authors
Becoming a Better College Teacher (If You're Lucky)
This contribution is a narrative of how a professor attempted to improve as a teacher over time. The narrator noticed the need for improvement through teaching a new class badly, and learning that he had no reason to trust that he, or many others, were teaching other classes better. The contribution describes in some detail the steps he took, and continues to take, including observing colleagues, hiring a coach, reviewing videos of his classes, a…
Educational Goods
Distributive Values and Independent Values
This chapter introduces three distributive values relating to education: equality, adequacy, and benefiting the less advantaged; and introduces independent values -- such as childhood goods, and freedom of choice of residence and occupation -- which should be taken into account when making decisions about educational policy and practice.
School Autonomy and Parental Choice
This chapter looks at questions around school choice, and focuses particularly on charter schools and similar reform ideas. Three central questions are considered. Should policy makers deliberately keep the charter school sector small relative to the number of traditional public schools? Should most of the regulations that apply to public schools be waived for charter schools? And should the education system aggressively hold charter schools acco…
Achievement as an Educational Good
This chapter explains the idea of an achievement gap, and surveys the data available on how achievement is, in fact, distributed across various demographic groups. It also explores the place of the concept of achievement -- understood narrowly as performance on certain kinds of tests -- in the broader concept of educational goods.
Conclusion
The conclusion emphasizes the main themes of the book. The book aims to enrich the language and conceptual resources used by educational decision-makers; to alert decision-makers to difficult value trade-offs and help them think rigorously about them; and to help them understand better how careful consideration of values can improve the process of establishing what evidence is pertinent to a decision and how it is pertinent.
School Finance
This chapter illustrates the decision-making process by looking at three key decisions concerning financing: Should the central policy makers provide more funds to certain local governments than to others to compensate for differences in the cost of schooling or the needs of students? If so, how much more? Should local governments be allowed to supplement funds from the central government through taxes or other means? And should local governments…
Educational Goods
Combining Values and Evidence
This chapter outlines a process for responsibly combining values and evidence in educational decision-making: decision makers should identify the values in play, the key decisions relative to those values, assess the options in the light of the evidence and values, and establish the best policy in the circumstances.
School Accountability
Educational Goods
Family values reconsidered
It is wonderful to receive so much careful attention. But it’s also frustrating. Each paper poses important questions, and between them they cover a wide range of issues. It is challenging, on such big topics, and in so few words, simultaneously to set the record straight, to identify the various objections posed by our critics, and to respond to them in a way likely to advance our collective understanding of the issues. Still, here goes
Educational goods and values
This article articulates a framework suitable for use when making decisions about education policy. Decision makers should establish what the feasible options are and evaluate them in terms of their contribution to the development, and distribution, of educational goods in children, balanced against the negative effect of policies on important independent values. The article articulates a theory of educational goods by reference to six capacities…
The relationship between philosophy and evidence in education
This article explores the ways that philosophy and evidence interact in the exploration of normative questions in philosophy of education. First, the authors provide a description of reflective equilibrium, a central method in normative philosophizing. They proceed to describe three tasks of normative philosophy, each of which requires engagement with empirical evidence, albeit in different ways: identifying values, assessing institutional arrang…
Family Values
Educational Goods
In Educational Goods, two philosophers and two social scientists address this very question. They begin by broadening the language for talking about educational policy: “educational goods” are the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that children develop for their own benefit and that of others; “childhood goods” are the valuable experiences and freedoms that make childhood a distinct phase of life. Balancing those, and understanding that not all of…
Democracy and Proportionality
D EMOCRACY is commonly conceived of in political theory in terms of equality of power among the relevant population. 1 This conception of democracy is, however, known to be plagued with difficulties.In particular, democratic equality is typically associated with some use of the majority rule, and is thereby linked to the related conundrums: unleashed majorities may oppress minorities and crush basic liberal rights; majority cycles may lead to cha…
Legitimate Parental Partiality
Egalitarianism and Equal Availability of Political Influence
Strong Gender Egalitarianism
Perhaps the most intractable aspect of gender inequality concerns inequalities within the family around the domestic division of labor, especially over child care and other forms of caregiving. These enduring gender inequalities constitute a significant obstacle to achieving "strong gender egalitarianism"-a structure of social relations in which the division of labor around housework and caregiving within the family and occupational distributions…
Neutrality, Publicity, and State Funding of the Arts
What's Wrong With Privatising Schools
Full privatisation of schools would involve states abstaining from providing, funding or regulating schools.I argue that full privatisation would, in most circumstances, worsen social injustice in schooling.I respond to James Tooley's critique of my own arguments for funding and regulation and markets.I argue that even his principle of educational adequacy requires a certain level of state involvement and demonstrate that his arguments against a …
Egalitarian Liberalism and Justice in Education
Based on an Inaugural Professorial Lecture delivered at the Institute of Education, University of London on 24 October 2001
Educational Justice and Socio-Economic Segregation in Schools
Sociologists exploring educational injustice often focus on socio-economic segregation as a central measure of injustice. The comprehensive ideal, furthermore, has the idea of socio-economic integration built into it. The current paper argues that socio-economic segregation is valuable only insofar as it serves other, more fundamental values. This matters because sometimes policy-makers will find themselves facing trade-offs between increasing in…
Defending liberalism in education theory
Educationists frequently either reject or neglect liberalism as a possible normative grounding for their evaluation of education reform. We argue that their reasons for doing so are usually grounded either in fundamental misunderstandings of liberalism, or misguided evaluations of some standard objections to liberalism. We show how five standard objections to liberalism fail, and display the richness of liberalism as a normative approach to educa…
Why Should States Fund Schools
In arguing for government withdrawal from funding and regulating schooling, James Tooley claims that equality of opportunity in education implies only that all deserve an adequate minimum education. However, he concedes the ‘abstract egalitarian thesis’that all should be treated with equal concern and respect. I show that this thesis indeed implies educational equality, and that Tooley's arguments against educational equality rest on a misunderst…
Family values reconsidered
It is wonderful to receive so much careful attention. But it’s also frustrating. Each paper poses important questions, and between them they cover a wide range of issues. It is challenging, on such big topics, and in so few words, simultaneously to set the record straight, to identify the various objections posed by our critics, and to respond to them in a way likely to advance our collective understanding of the issues. Still, here goes
Becoming a Better College Teacher (If You're Lucky)
This contribution is a narrative of how a professor attempted to improve as a teacher over time. The narrator noticed the need for improvement through teaching a new class badly, and learning that he had no reason to trust that he, or many others, were teaching other classes better. The contribution describes in some detail the steps he took, and continues to take, including observing colleagues, hiring a coach, reviewing videos of his classes, a…
In Defence of Educational Equality
The principle of educational equality is important for the plausibility of egalitarianism. I argue against John Wilson’s recent attempts to show that two particular versions of the principle are incoherent, and I rebut his argument that even if it were coherent it would be wrong to endorse it. Two other objections to this version of the principle are considered and shown not to be decisive. The principle governing the distribution of educational …
Educational Goods
This is a brief summary of the book Educational Goods: Values, Evidence, and Decision-Making by Harry Brighouse, Helen F. Ladd, Susanna Loeb and Adam Swift. It provides the introduction to the present symposium on this book, which includes the ensuing contributions from Carey Bagelman, Randall Curren, Michael Hand, John Tillson and Winston Thompson, followed by a response from the authors
Education
This paper identifies four criteria, all of which an ideal real utopian proposal would meet. We argue for a moderate skepticism that it is possible to give a real utopian proposal to guide the design of education for a society that meets these criteria; both for the practical reason that what happens in schools depends on the background environment within which they operate, and for the principled reason that when educating children we should att…
On Alex Callinicos's Equality
A Modest Defence of School Choice
This is a response to Samara Foster’s engaging critique of my book School Choice and Social Justice. In this response to her criticisms I clarify and try to correct some apparent misunderstandings of the book, but also take the opportunity to pose again a challenge to opponents of choice which neither she, nor other of my critics, has taken up
Book Symposium
Egalitarian Liberals and School Choice
The Egalitarian Virtues of Educational Vouchers
The paper argues that there is no fundamental incompatibility between the use of vouchers and managed market mechanisms in the distribution of education und the principled aims of egalitarian educational policy. It takes those aims to be equality of opportunity, education for autonomy, and democratic education, and shows in each case how a voucher scheme could accommodate the aim. It explains why a judiciously designed voucher scheme may constitu…
Is There Any Such Thing as Political Liberalism?
The Egalitarian Virtues of Educational Vouchers
The paper argues that there is no fundamental incompatibility between the use of vouchers and managed market mechanisms in the distribution of education und the principled aims of egalitarian educational policy. It takes those aims to be equality of opportunity, education for autonomy, and democratic education, and shows in each case how a voucher scheme could accommodate the aim. It explains why a judiciously designed voucher scheme may constitu…
Transitional and Utopian Market Socialism
Political Equality and the Funding of Political Speech
Rejetant les sources externes de l'inegalite politique telles que le revenu et la richesse, l'A. developpe la notion de marche honnete des idees politiques qui propose un ensemble des regulations appliquables aux processus de la deliberation publique, et qui jette les bases d'une validite egale de l'influence politique
In Defence of Educational Equality
The principle of educational equality is important for the plausibility of egalitarianism. I argue against John Wilson’s recent attempts to show that two particular versions of the principle are incoherent, and I rebut his argument that even if it were coherent it would be wrong to endorse it. Two other objections to this version of the principle are considered and shown not to be decisive. The principle governing the distribution of educational …
Neutrality, Publicity, and State Funding of the Arts
Is There a Neutral Justification for Liberalism?
Neutralist defenses of liberalism fail because they cannot account for essential features of an acceptable liberal theory: a firm guarantee for a sphere of individual liberty, an account of our interest in being able to revise our moral commitments, a wide range of applicability, and the possibility of legitimate government in the face of rejection by unreasonable citizens. A liberalism based on the value of autonomy can address the problems whic…
Egalitarianism and Equal Availability of Political Influence
Egalitarian Liberals and School Choice
Two Philosophical Errors Concerning School Choice
In his contribution to a recent symposium on school choice David Hargreaves makes two philosophical mistakes concerning the design of educational policy. The first is that libertarianism ‐‐ the presumption that choice and diversity are desirable in social institutions ‐‐ implies the presumption that choice is desirable in the design of educational institutions. I argue that libertarianism actually implies a mild presumption against choice in educ…
International Relations and Politics
Civic Education and Liberal Legitimacy
Why Should States Fund Schools
In arguing for government withdrawal from funding and regulating schooling, James Tooley claims that equality of opportunity in education implies only that all deserve an adequate minimum education. However, he concedes the ‘abstract egalitarian thesis’that all should be treated with equal concern and respect. I show that this thesis indeed implies educational equality, and that Tooley's arguments against educational equality rest on a misunderst…
Critical Moral Liberalism
Justice, Civilization, and the Death Penalty Chapter 16 Index
School Choice and Social Justice
Can Justice as Fairness Accommodate the Disabled
John Rawls's theory of justice has been faulted by some critics for the fact that its principles of justice are blind to the special status of those with chronic, and naturally caused, disabilities.1 Some of its friends, fur thermore, consider this not a drawback but an advantage, since it cor rectly treats disadvantages caused by social agency as more morally ur gent than those caused by nature.2 Rawls's theory is frequently (and understandably)…
Book Symposium
School Choice and Social Justice
Defends a theory of social justice for education from within an egalitarian version of liberalism. The theory involves a strong commitment to educational equality, and to the idea that children's rights include a right to personal autonomy. The book argues that school reform must always be evaluated from the perspective of social justice and applies the theory, in particular, to school choice proposals. It looks at the parental choice schemes in …
On Alex Callinicos's Equality
A Modest Defence of School Choice
This is a response to Samara Foster’s engaging critique of my book School Choice and Social Justice. In this response to her criticisms I clarify and try to correct some apparent misunderstandings of the book, but also take the opportunity to pose again a challenge to opponents of choice which neither she, nor other of my critics, has taken up
Egalitarian Liberalism and Justice in Education
Based on an Inaugural Professorial Lecture delivered at the Institute of Education, University of London on 24 October 2001
Educational Equality and Justice
Defending liberalism in education theory
Educationists frequently either reject or neglect liberalism as a possible normative grounding for their evaluation of education reform. We argue that their reasons for doing so are usually grounded either in fundamental misunderstandings of liberalism, or misguided evaluations of some standard objections to liberalism. We show how five standard objections to liberalism fail, and display the richness of liberalism as a normative approach to educa…
What's Wrong With Privatising Schools
Full privatisation of schools would involve states abstaining from providing, funding or regulating schools.I argue that full privatisation would, in most circumstances, worsen social injustice in schooling.I respond to James Tooley's critique of my own arguments for funding and regulation and markets.I argue that even his principle of educational adequacy requires a certain level of state involvement and demonstrate that his arguments against a …
Liberal Pluralism
Book Review| January 01 2004 Liberal Pluralism William Galston, Liberal Pluralism New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp ix, 137. Harry Brighouse Harry Brighouse Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Philosophical Review (2004) 113 (1): 127–129. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-113-1-127 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Harry Brighouse; Liberal Plura…
Sociology (52 works) · Political science (51 works) · Law (47 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (34 works) · Philosophy (29 works) · Economics (28 works) · Epistemology (28 works) · Politics (23 works) · Law (19 works) · Psychology (19 works)