Educational Goods Reconsidered: A Response

Abstract

We are very grateful to our commentators for their kind words, for their careful attention and for the opportunity their comments have given us both to clarify some of our arguments and positions and to develop our thinking further. The book was not written for philosophers, it was not written exclusively by philosophers, and-although we spent many years writing it-it was always intended to be quite short (which is partly why it took so long). It would be convenient if these considerations could excuse all its failures fully to defend, or perhaps sometimes even adequately to convey, the various philosophical claims we put forward. Between them, they certainly explain why those claims are set out in such a simplified and summary fashion-and why they are asserted rather than argued for. But we do not pretend that our responses to the comments and criticisms will be simply a matter of explaining what we had in mind all along. Many of the challenges and suggestions are penetrating and insightful; they have got us thinking new thoughts. Space will not allow us to reply to every point, so we have chosen to focus on common themes and suggestions that strike us as particularly important and/or interesting.