Abstract
Although many philosophers of education seem to feel fully justified in teaching children to be rational, there is much controversy over whether rationality is really a good thing and worth defending as a fundamental educational ideal. In this paper, I first argue that rationality is not defensible in the forms of classical and means/end conception. Instead, I suggest that rationality be construed as a tripartite concept comprising cognitive, practical and evaluative rationality. Based on this tripartite conception of rationality, I then put forward four arguments — grounded on pragmatic, ontological, moral, and hedonic considerations — for teaching children to be rational.
| Keywords: | rationality; educational ideal; cognitive rationality; practical rationality; evaluative rationality; justification |
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