헤어(R. M. Hare)의 윤리 이론과 도덕 교육

R. M. Hare tried to bring his own moral theory, namely universal prescriptivism to bear on moral education. He assorted moral education into two kinds, the descriptivist and the prescriptivist, and insisted that moral education aim for the latter. The descriptivist moral education is the content-based approach that teaches 'the content of morality'. Because it teaches moral ideals or descriptive definitions of morality in each society as a objective truth, it is likely to lead to the authoritarian moral education. On the other hand, the prescriptivist moral education is the form-based approach that teaches 'the form of morality'. And it teaches the meaning and the logical properties of moral language, eventually the method of moral thinking—the method of universal prescriptivist moral reasoning. It tries to teach students how to think autonomously according to the logical properties of moral language, namely prescriptivity and universalizability. Hare suggested that the logical properties of moral language have four practical implications for moral education. First, the prescriptivity implies that it is important for moral educator as a practical model to really and sincerely live up to moral principles which he is advocating. Second, the prescriptivity implies that it is necessary to teach students to make their own decisions on moral principles. Third, universalizability implies that it is important to forster competence to put oneself in the shoes of other people in moral education. Fourth, universalizability implies that it is necessary to teach love of our fellow men to students in moral education.