Educating for the Wisdom of Virtue

Abstract

Despite that the revival of modern ethical interest in virtue more or less coincided with the post WWII development of analytical philosophy of education in Britain, former British Commonwealth countries and the USA, educational interest in virtue ethics seems to have been slow on the uptake. Moreover, latter day interest in virtue on the part of educational philosophers has—with a few exceptions—focused mainly on the work of Alasdair McIntyre. In the present view, MacIntyre’s largely social theoretical reading of virtue ethics is not generally helpful for any clear appreciation of virtue education and there is cause for concern about some of the uses (which, however, limited space precludes present exploration: though see Carr 2010) to which MacIntyre’s views have lately been put by educational philosophers. However, it will also be argued that while the neo-naturalist mainstream of modern virtue ethics offers a better overall understanding of the moral and educational significance of virtue, there may be a case for a more realist Socratic or Platonic reading of such naturalism—and this will be made with reference to the work of John McDowell and Iris Murdoch. Still, the chapter concludes with some appreciation of the focus in both Murdoch and McIntyre on the educational significance of literary narratives and stories for understanding moral character and virtue.