The importance and centrality to philosophy of conceptual analysis is to be emphasized. It is not simply a recent fad or phenomenon in the subject. It has always been a part of philosophizing, at least as far as the Western world is concerned (and here it should be acknowledged that, though available to all, the kind of philosophy that we are engaged in is particularly associated with Western thought.) Thus, consider this passage from Plato’s Republic:
“What you say, Cephalus, is excellent,” I said. “But as to this justice, can we quite without qualification define it as ‘truthfulness and repayment of anything we have received’; or are these very actions sometimes just and sometimes unjust? For example, if we have been given weapons by a friend and he went mad and reclaimed them, it would surely be universally admitted that it would not be right to give them back. Anyone who did so, and was prepared to tell the whole truth to a man in that state, would not be just.” “You are right,” he said. Then this – speaking the truth and restoring what we have received – is not the definition of justice.1
This passage makes it clear that one of the things Plato was up to in the Republic was to get at the meaning of justice, and this concern on his part links him directly with a great many contemporary philosophers, for as Gilbert Ryle observes, “the story of twentieth-century philosophy is very largely the story of this notion of sense or meaning”.2 There are three different kinds of meaning which it would be well to distinguish at the outset.
Consider the seemingly fact-stating statement “Education consists of molding individuals into obedient members of the state”. Despite appearances, this might not be a statement of fact but an evaluation on the part of the person making it, meaning that “Education ought to consist of…” We need, then, to distinguish fact-stating language, which we shall refer to as the descriptive use of language, from the evaluative use of language.
Descriptive meaning is concerned with supplying information. For example, “The book is on the table” or “Snow is white”. Note that the information concerned does not have to be true: “Santa Claus is coming tonight” is equally an example of descriptive use of language. We can get a little clearer about the nature of descriptive meaning by comparing it with emotive meaning. If a speaker says that a certain film lasts for an hour and a half, then this would be correctly classified as a descriptive remark, regardless of whether it is true or false. But if he says of the same film “it was sickening and disgusting”, he is giving vent to his feelings; he was disgusted and sickened by it. Because he is expressing his emotional reaction rather than describing anything about the film, this utterance is classified as an instance of the emotive use of language. But now suppose that he says, “It was not a particularly good film.” This is not an emotive use of language, for he says nothing about his emotional reaction to it; it is a judgment about the quality of the film, which we classify as an evaluative expression. Finally, we may note that the question “Why do you say that?” which is generally a perfectly reasonable and sensible question to raise in the context of an evaluative statement, is not appropriate in the case of a descriptive statement. For example, “Why do you say that?” in response to the descriptive statement that the book is on the table is puzzling. The book just is on the table, and that is obviously why it was said. The same is not true of “Why do you say that?” in respect of the evaluative statement that it was a good film. All that ‘Why?’ does here is ask for the reasons for rating the film as good, and that is not at all puzzling.
Many words can be used both descriptively and evaluatively (not to mention emotively), as for instance ‘natural’ can be. If I claim that aggression is ‘natural’ in humans, it is not clear whether I mean simply that it is part of our nature, whether I mean to imply that it is morally acceptable, or both (see Chapter 4). But certain words logically or necessarily imply evaluation, whether positive or negative. Thus, ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’, ‘good’ and ‘bad’, and ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ all obviously and inescapably involve evaluation. We may disagree as to what is beautiful, but we cannot get round the fact that in calling something beautiful we are commending it or giving a positive evaluation. Such terms as necessarily imply evaluation are frequently referred to as normative (because they imply standards or norms).
The distinction between descriptive, evaluative, and emotive meaning, and the ability to recognize normative terms, is important in philosophy generally, and particularly so in the philosophy of education. This is because education is shot through with questions of value. As Max Black puts it, “All serious discussion of educational problems, no matter how specific, soon leads to a consideration of educational aims, and becomes a conversa...