There are promising suggestions in ethical philosophy that may assist substantially in the clarification of issues in the affective domain in education. These suggestions may be viewed in two aspects--as analytical distinctions and as synthetic coordination of these analytic elements. It is possible to construct an intelligible theory of the affective domain by displaying the structure of affective dimensions as reflected in ethical thought. Analysis distinguishes five aspects or types of affects--organic impulse, feeling, intention, rational appraisal, and progressive idealization--and for each aspect there is a corresponding ethic--survival, hedonic, self-realization, critical, and progressive-idealist. Several theories have included these, or similar, concepts in a larger view of human nature. Among them are Kohlberg's stages of moral development, comparisons of moral development with human evolution, and Arendt's analysis of the levels of human activity. The central task of the school is to serve as a distinguisher of the sources and kinds of affect and as a coordinator of these types according to defensive and productive principles of precedent and priority. (Author/IRT)