Goals in the Teaching of Ethics

Abstract

Any discussion of possible goals in the teaching of ethics must begin by facing a number of formidable difficulties. The very phrase “the teaching of ethics” has a variety of connotations in our culture, and so for that matter does the term “ethics.” One can never be certain just what people hear when they encounter the notion of “teaching ethics”: for some, it means instructing people not to break the law, or to abide by some legal or professional code; for others, it means an attempt to improve moral character or to instill certain virtues; for still others, it primarily means imparting special skills in the handling of moral argumentation. Moreover, clarity is by no means guaranteed by the standard method of simply stipulating one’s own definitions or viewpoints. Someone who was once “taught ethics” by harsh and repressive methods of gross indoctrination may have trouble understanding “the teaching of ethics” in any more benign sense, however carefully one may point out other possibilities.