| dc.description.abstract | By consulting the work of J. Kovesi with specific reference to the way in which he interprets the origin and meaning of concepts I argue that concepts influence human practices and that human practices have an influence on the meaning of concepts. According to Kovesi every concept has a formal element (FE) and material elements (ME). The full meaning of a concept is to be found in the FE of the concept and not in the ME or the ways in which the FE is lived out. The FE of a concept be it an object (eg. a table) or a human action (eg. education) serves as a standard or criterium whereby one could measure if such an object or action has come to its full meaning. The FE of a concept is also determined by the needs, institutions and human practices (the context). However, in the case of a change in the context, the possibility
exists that the meaning of a concept might also change accordingly. Therefore, by investigating the FE of the concepts morality,
schooling, education, profession, trade and teaching profession', firstly with reference to their connections with one another and secondly their connection with the concept morality, I argue that there is a necessary connection between the concepts education, profession, teaching profession and morality and that therefore the teacher is primarily a moral- agent. | en_US |
