The Varieties of Educational Value

• In Event: Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Values, Concepts, Cases: Questions of Method in Philosophy of Education

Abstract

Most theories of value offer a monistic analysis, one based on a single feature. Pluralistic theories of value, in which good itself has multiple and irreducible meanings, also exist. In this paper I build on Georg H. von Wright’s (1963) idea of varieties of goodness to identify multiple forms of educational goodness, and thus to provide an enriched vocabulary for educational evaluation. G. H/ Von Wright distinguishes between instrumental, technical, hedonic, and utilitarian goodness, and then considers the beneficial (the good for the good of a person, or for a person’s well-being) as a particular kind of utilitarian value. I describe each form of goodness and show its specific place in education and educational evaluation.

Author

• Leonard J. Waks, Temple University