Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory

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| Editors: Michael A. Peters

Liberal Education, Character and Virtue in

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_568-1
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Introduction

Whether virtue can be taught is a question as old as philosophy itself – almost as old is the question of whether education should include character formation and, thus, the acquisition of virtue or whether it should be limited to cultivation of intellect. To provide an answer, two further questions must be addressed: first, whether education can, indeed, influence character, and second, whether moral education is the responsibility of schools or whether it lies with families, communities, and churches.

In this context, it is important to distinguish between secondary and university education. Despite heated debate in recent decades, there is now widespread consensus on the need for character education in schools (Arthur 2003; Naval et al. 2015). However, given that students are legally adults when they attend the university, the need for character education and the opportunities for providing it are not so clear and may be viewed as interfering with personal freedom.

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Copyright information

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Philosophy Department/Core Curriculum InstituteUniversity of NavarraPamplonaSpain