[lit-ideas] Re: virtue-practical example of being taught
- From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2006 19:51:57 -0800
John McCreery wrote:
Just want to point out that if you are looking for attempts to teach
virtue, one obvious case is the military. I think, in particular, of
my daughter's experience at the US Naval Academy. Under "Moral
Education," Academy's home page describes its objectives as follows:
[Academy's statement snipped]
Above, I say "attempts to teach" deliberately, since anyone familiar
with Midshipmen or Naval Officers in general knows that they exhibit a
full range of human weaknesses, and the Academy is often accused of
cultivating an elitest snobbery and in-group tendency to mutual
self-protection that can be far from virtuous. Still, to me, whose
civilian higher education made little or no pretense of trying to
shape my character, the statement above remains impressive. So does
the fact that the training involved is more than classroom teaching
alone. I was most impressed by the fact that, as soon as my daughter
ceased being a plebe she was put in charge of others Midshipmen junior
to herself and that her class rank depended in part on how well they
did. It wasn't enough to be a big brain or star athlete or look sharp
in uniform—taking responsibility for taking care of other people was
part of the education she received.
Although John makes clear that he's talking about 'attempts to teach,'
and not actual teaching, I wonder if whatever the Academy does it would
be possible really to teach 'virtue' (or morality) to those who had no
conception of it in the first place. How are moral concepts to get a
foothold among those who are entirely innocent of them (who have to have
it pointed out to them that a promise is what one ought to keep; that
gratuitous harm is more than imprudent, for example)? Discussions of
conflicts of duty assume a prior notion of duty; discussions of moral
dilemmas assume a prior understanding of what it is about certain
situations that makes them dilemmas—and so on.
In trying to teach 'philosophical ethics,' over the years, I've depended
on the existence of certain clear cases (or right and wrong) that are
not themselves constituents of any particular moral theory; rather, it
is a criticism of a theory that it appears to countenance clear cases of
'wrongdoing,' and it is equally a criticism that a theory seems to
reject certain clear cases of doing the right thing. If students have no
prior acquaintance with such things, it would be impossible either to
explain what moral theories were 'about' or to criticize them, except,
perhaps, by showing that they are internally inconsistent.
Where John's daughter's class rank depended on how well she carried out
her duties with respect to those for whom she was responsible, it needs
to be, and surely was, clear that her concern was more than merely
prudential, i.e., that she saw her carrying them out as something over
and above how well it served her own needs for advancement, etc., before
her responsibilities could lead to her 'moral' advancement.
If 'virtue' or morality can be taught, its teaching won't look much like
the teaching of number theory or close order drill; but neither will it
be entirely improvisatory.
Robert Paul
Reed College
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