Securing “Exiting” Rights: The Demands of Educating for Autonomy and Noncognitive Intellectual Virtues in Diverse Societies

• In Event: Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Autonomy, Religion, and Exit Rights in Philosophy of Education

Abstract

Philosophers have long considered how liberal states should respond to the internal practices of illiberal minority groups. They agree that at minimum the state must protect the individual exit rights, but disagree about what protecting exit rights entails. This paper will argue that protecting individual rights to exit creates strong educational demands. The argument begins with an account of the process of exiting one’s group of origin that gives due attention to the internal features, which include gradual identity-transformation. This account of exiting is followed by an analysis of character dispositions that make exiting possible, including autonomy, open-mindedness, and courage. Finally, implications for the education of these dispositions are drawn from the social scientific literature on noncognitive dispositions.

Author

• Rebecca M Taylor, Stanford University