You don't have to 'be religious' to believe there may be a life after death! The Medium and the Minister explores psychical and religious approaches to the possibility of an afterlife. The tensions and conflicts between these two approaches and the heated controversies they have generated are illustrated by a number of case studies. These focus on the challenges posed by psychical research and spiritualism to orthodox religion as the ultimate authority for information and teaching about the afterlife. Prominence is given initially to the campaigns of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sir Oliver Lodge which aimed to publicise the psychical evidence and to the Church's reaction to them. Later developments and initiatives to try to reconcile the opposing positions are then examined in the light of further psychical research. The issues raised are shown to be still highly relevant to current beliefs and attitudes and to the question of what might constitute evidence for life after death.

The apparently straightforward question 'Can we teach children to be good?' cannot be properly understood without a great deal of careful thinking about the philosophical issues involved. Teachers and parents often assume that what the question means and how it should be answered are self-evidently matters of plain 'commonsense', but the dangers of such assumptions are laid bare by the probing approach of this book. After reflecting on the terms 'goodness' and 'teaching' it proceeds to describe and critically examine a number of attempts to define the nature of morality in terms of its form or its content, thereby teasing out the many conflicting views of moral education which follow from these theories. No one account of morality or 'moral education' is found to be wholly satisfactory and a synthesis is offered in the final chapter, which suggests a variety of practical teaching strategies.

The apparently straightforward question 'Can we teach children to be good?' cannot be properly understood without a great deal of careful thinking about the philosophical issues involved. Teachers and parents often assume that what the question means and how it should be answered are self-evidently matters of plain 'commonsense', but the dangers of such assumptions are laid bare by the probing approach of this book. After reflecting on the terms 'goodness' and 'teaching' it proceeds to describe and critically examine a number of attempts to define the nature of morality in terms of its form or its content, thereby teasing out the many conflicting views of moral education which follow from these theories. No one account of morality or 'moral education' is found to be wholly satisfactory and a synthesis is offered in the final chapter, which suggests a variety of practical teaching strategies.

Acknowledgements - Notes on the Contributors - Introduction - THE LOGIC OF EDUCATIONAL AIMS AND ACHIEVEMENTS - Education and Magic; D.Z.Phillips - Examination not Attempted; A.Flew - Education as a Positional Good; M.Hollis - RATIONALITY, UNDERSTANDING AND EDUCATION - The Transmission of Knowledge; N.Cooper - On Having a Mind of One's Own; R.S.Downie - Humanistic Education: Some Philosophical Considerations; G.H.R.Parkinson - REASON IN RELIGIOUS AND MORAL EDUCATION - Two Questions about Religious Education; W.D.Hudson - Attitudes to Evidence and Argument in the Field of Religion; R.W.Hepburn - Moral Developments as the Goal of Moral Education; D.Locke - The Roots of Moral Reason; R.Bambrough - Index

Little more than a decade ago the term "genetic engineering" was hardly known outside research laboratories. Today it regularly makes headlines. Those in favor of genetic engineering--and those against it--tell us that it has the potential to change our lives perhaps more than any other scientific or technological advance. But what are the likely consequences of genetic engineering? Is it ethically acceptable? Should we be trying to improve on nature? In Improving Nature?, the authors, a biologist and a moral philosopher, examine the implications of genetic engineering in every aspect of our lives. The underlying science is clearly explained and the moral and ethical considerations are fully disussed, resulting in a wide-ranging, balanced overview of a controversial subject. Michael Jonathan Reiss, a biologist, is Professor of Science Education and Head of Science & Technology, University of London Institute of Education. He is the author of Understanding Science Lessons (Open University Press, 2000). Roger Straughan is Reader in Education at the University of Reading. He is the author of Beliefs, Behaviour and Education (Cassell Academic, 1989). Previous paperback edition (1996) 0-521-63754-6