The Gender diverse and the Genderless Conceptions of Marriage and Children’s Right to Develop their Sexual Identity

The article is a philosophical analysis of the meaning structure of two competing conceptions of marriage with regard to children’s right to develop their sexual identity. These two conceptions of marriage make different metaphysical assumptions about human nature, which lead to different conceptions about the preconditions of children’s sexual development. The gender diverse conception assumes that human beings are born with a biological sex and they can be integrated persons only when living in terms with it. In order to develop their sexual identity they benefit from male-female interaction within the nuclear family. The genderless conception assumes that children are free to construct t…

Religious Education in Finland: Promoting Intelligent Belief?

This article discusses current dilemmas in religious education in Finland. Different interpretations of confessional religious education are presented in the context of the Lutheran tradition. Pedagogical applications of religious education advocated by Michael Grimmitt are explored as plausible approaches in promoting the religious understanding of students. The article presents some suggestions to enrich Grimmitt's pedagogy with a more argumentative approach, which unites both reason and feeling. Such an intelligent approach is arguably in accord with the pedagogical interpretation of confessional religious education.

Spinoza on Teaching and Indoctrination

Dialoginen pluralismi kanslaiskasvatuksessa, erityisesti kasvatuksessa ihmisoikeuksiin

Tämän artikkelin taustaoletuksena on ajatus, että demokratia edellyttää oikeudenmukaisuuteen sitoutuneita kansalaisia ja että tällaisten kansalaisten kehittyminen edellyttää kansalaiskasvatusta. Oikeudenmukaisuuskasvatuksen pitäisi pystyä välittämään vakaumus, että jokaisella ihmisellä riippumatta ominaisuuksistaan on ehdottomat ihmisoikeudet, jotka perustuvat jokaisen ihmisen ehdottomaan ihmisarvoon. Ilman tällaista vakaumusta demokratia jäisi muodolliseksi proseduuriksi, joka ei takaisi tasa-arvoa, oikeudenmukaisuutta ja ihmisarvoa. Demokraattinen yhteiskunta voisi esimerkiksi päättää sulkea tietyn osan kansalaisista pakkotyöleireihin, joissa he edelleen säilyttävät äänioikeutensa, vaikka…

A teoria espinosana de ensino e doutrinação

O objetivo deste artigo é investigar os aspectos da teoria espinosana da educação que se relacionam diretamente com a discussão moderna sobre doutrinação. Segundo o autor, se Espinosa, por um lado, entende que o educador deve ajudar os estudantes a deixarem o domínio da imaginação para aquele da razão, defendendo nesse sentido um ensino que promova a autonomia do educando, por outro lado, ele crê ser preciso recorrer à doutrinação quando o estudante se mostra racionalmente passivo.

The Educational Implications of the Atomistic Family Structure : How the Atomization of the Family Undermines the Education of Critical Citizens by Making People Vulnerable to Indoctrination and Propaganda

This article uses historical and sociological research as the basis for a philosophically argued thesis about the negative educational consequences of the atomization of the family structure. Carle Zimmerman’s theory of the social causality involved in the atomistic family structure is illustrated with an example of a Bolshevik social experiment and applied to the atomization of the modern Western family as shown by contemporary social science research. The focus is on the ways that the atomization of the family undermines the education of children into autonomous and critical citizens. Once the normative structures of marriage and family disintegrate, the identity and relationship rights o…

Dietrich von Hildebrand’s Criticism of Amoral Sex Education

This article analyzes Dietrich von Hildebrand’s criticism of amoral sex education, which he regards as misleading and anti-educational in many crucial respects. Its content is misleading, because it separates human sexuality from its inherent connection with married love and thereby fails to do justice to the personal and intimate nature of sexuality. Its reductive and neutralizing approach not only fails to develop young people’s capacity for the transcendence implicit in moral agency, it also fails to provide the preconditions for the development of their authe-antic subjectivity. Instead of fostering objectivity, critical thinking and autonomy, amoral sex education promotes a normatively…