Concern for values in education has developed rapidly in the last decade. Following a period in which people looked upon science as value-free and had confidence that it could solve all human problems, new sensibilities have developed. More attention is given now to the person as free and responsible and to the life of communities as reflecting their cultures, their rich experience and their deep commitments. This, along with serious problems of social life in society and hence in education, has generated new concern for the moral dimension of education and character development.

All of this generated an urgent need for an integrating understanding of the person and his or her growth and development. In response, The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP) designed and implemented a three level approach. First, over a two year period, a team of nine philosophers elaborated a volume on the multiple dimensions of the person as moral agent. This drew upon phenomenological insights to trace one's being from its very origins in order to overcome the characteristically modern dilemmas of relating mind to will, and body to spirit. The study worked to integrate also the classical concern for moral norms with more recent contemporary sensibility to human growth. Conversely, it attempted to situate the work done by Piaget and Kohlberg on developmental stages within a deeper metaphysical context which provided new grounding and enriched significance for the development of the human person. The resulting integrated understanding of the person in relation to moral growth is entitled: Act and Agent: Philosophical Foundations for Moral Education and Character Development.

A year later a companion team of eleven psychologists undertook to investigate the psychological dynamics of these themes. They not only brought together the relevant resources in their field, but added work on the psychology of such dimensions of moral life as emotions and responsibility which had emerged with new importance in the philosophy volume. This was integrated within an evolved psychological model which expanded and enriched that of Erickson. The implications were traced for moral education at each stage of life, from early childhood to old age. That volume is entitled: Psychological Foundations of Moral Education and Character Development: An Integrated Theory of Moral Development.

During the third year a team of thirteen professors of education initiated a two year effort to work out the educational implications of these investigations. In their studies central attention was given, of course, to curriculum implications for personal growth at the various grade, high school and college levels. As the contexts of meaningful personal interaction and of concrete moral challenge, the classroom, school and social environments were also studied.

In discussions of the above work with scholars from other continents it was pointed out, particularly by those in education in Latin America, that these studies focused upon personal growth. Its possibilities, difficulties and modalities, however, are affected fundamentally by the historical dynamics of the community which shape one's life. Hence, the above philosophical, psychological and educational studies needed to be continued in an explicit study of the ways in which society, in its strengths and weaknesses, is fundamental to the educational project.

Consequently, a team consisting largely of Latin American scholars carried out the present cooperative study. This approaches personal life as lived in community, through time, and thereby creating social life, history and culture. Education works with concrete persons and peoples as born into a history and culture which gives them their special capability for moral interaction. Thus, a hermeneutics or interpretation is basic for an education which would draw upon the values of a heritage and enable these to be shaped wisely in circumstances of great social change and hence psychological tension. This work is presented here under the title: The Social Context of Values: Perspectives of the Americas.

Part I on "Hermeneutics and the Socio-Historical Context of Values" first studies time, and hence the essentially historical character of the human person. This locates one in society, not as an external environment, but as one's source and destiny.

In this light, what the community has chosen in the past, how it has formed a pattern of values which constitutes its culture, and how it has ordered--and disordered--the structures of relations between persons and groups becomes a basic point of departure for learning appropriate moral relations and developing the capacity to take on the responsibilities of a moral life. To be able to look attentively at the pattern of values which makes human life possible for those growing up in a community and which shapes their destiny, Chapter II looks to hermeneutics.

This is seen both as interpretation of culture and as its critique, for through times of change tradition must be a liberating resource, rather than a set of chains holding a people to outmoded or possibly even exploitive structures. Hence, chapter II opens the way for attention to social analysis (ch III) and depth psychology (ch IV). Both are required in order to understand the external structures and the implied internal dynamics within which we shape our moral choices and build our relations to others.

On these foundations Part II, "Value Horizons and Liberation in Society," is able to look at some of the factors in the dynamics of contemporary social change under the modernizing influence of a technological rationalization of life (ch V). To respond creatively it is necessary to bring to new awareness an aesthetic striving for purpose, harmony and beauty in our life (ch VI). In turn, the grounds for this must be found in our histories as peoples and persons, that is, in our families and communities. These must be understood then, not as means for production or consumption, but as expression of human transcendence and hence of the Transcendent Itself (ch VII). This provides both the basis and the fulfillment of the search for liberation at the heart of social life (ch VIII).

The issues treated in this volume are vast. They have important concrete modalities which require continued and more detailed study. Such work is already in progress and single volumes in this and related series by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy will treat implied thematic issues: The Relation Between Cultures; Urbanization and Values; The Humanities, Moral Education and Character Development; and The Personalization of Society: Community and Contemporary Life; and related resources in specific cultural traditions: Moral Education in the Chinese Tradition; Man and Nature in Chinese Thought; Culture, Human Rights and Peace in Central America; Love, Community and Social Life in Venezuelan Culture; The Person in the Cultures of Ghana; and Ethics and African Cultures.

The search to transform, humanize and thereby to deepen and enrich social life is today the common heart of the search of peoples, both young and old. This volume is part of that search.