In Plato’s Meno, Socrates and Meno discuss the concept of virtue, where they realize neither of them have all the answers to what virtue is. Citation. According to dictionary.reference.com, virtue is “moral excellence; goodness; righteousness” and “conformity of one 's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.” I agree with Socrates when he says, he cannot teach virtue because he doesn 't know what virtue is. To come up with a true definition of virtue, one must consider that what may be moralistic for one person, may not be for another. Therefore, it seems impossible to apply a definition and teach anything besides the basic concept of virtue. Scheffler says in Moral Education and the Democratic Ideal that virtue
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In early years of a child’s life, it is common their parent(s) teach them that violence, naughty words, and disobeying are morally wrong. So because the child does not know any other sense of right and wrong, they just believe that slapping and swearing are wrong. Once that child is in school, he/she may be exposed to other children who have been exposed to different ‘rights and wrongs’. If one child sees another pull someones hair and swear, depending on how strongly their parents pushed these morals into their heads, the first child may believe that violence and swearing is okay, because someone their age did it. Not only do these students observe what their fellow classmates are doing, but they also look up to their teachers because they’re the ‘adult figure’ and they recognize that they need to obey them because of their parents lessons. Aristotle says, “We have to consider whether different people should be rulers and the ruled or whether the same people [should occupy these roles] throughout their lives… It would be obviously better that the one group should once and for all be rulers and one group should be ruled.” (Aristotle, p. 95, “Politics”). This is saying education is a relationship with two ‘teams’; those who rule and have dominance, versus those …show more content…
As I said earlier, if a child is raised in a negative environment, they are more likely to behave in a negative manner. However, Kathleen Beaubien says in her poem Moderation , “I didn’t learn moderation from nice people leading sane, ordered lives. But from a home filled with fear and the stink of booze.” (Beaubien, handout). She later says, “I didn’t learn moderation by going to bed early, by having one job, one partner, one passion, one cause, one drink-one anything. One was never enough. A hundred visions, a thousand tries. What did it take for me to pay attention? To be awake?” (Beaubien, handout). She is saying she learned from doing things the bad way. I can really relate to this because I came from bad virtue, and for a while, I had no sense of morals. I intentionally hurt people, and myself, because I thought it was okay. I stole, used, and lied to people, on top of physically harming myself with drugs and alcohol. I didn’t think what I was doing was wrong, and I was going down a really bad path. It took having a near death experience for me to realize that I didn’t want to live like that anymore, and I really wanted to fix myself. I truly believe that if I hadn’t gotten so far off the right path, I wouldn’t have the same moral views I do
In early years of a child’s life, it is common their parent(s) teach them that violence, naughty words, and disobeying are morally wrong. So because the child does not know any other sense of right and wrong, they just believe that slapping and swearing are wrong. Once that child is in school, he/she may be exposed to other children who have been exposed to different ‘rights and wrongs’. If one child sees another pull someones hair and swear, depending on how strongly their parents pushed these morals into their heads, the first child may believe that violence and swearing is okay, because someone their age did it. Not only do these students observe what their fellow classmates are doing, but they also look up to their teachers because they’re the ‘adult figure’ and they recognize that they need to obey them because of their parents lessons. Aristotle says, “We have to consider whether different people should be rulers and the ruled or whether the same people [should occupy these roles] throughout their lives… It would be obviously better that the one group should once and for all be rulers and one group should be ruled.” (Aristotle, p. 95, “Politics”). This is saying education is a relationship with two ‘teams’; those who rule and have dominance, versus those …show more content…
As I said earlier, if a child is raised in a negative environment, they are more likely to behave in a negative manner. However, Kathleen Beaubien says in her poem Moderation , “I didn’t learn moderation from nice people leading sane, ordered lives. But from a home filled with fear and the stink of booze.” (Beaubien, handout). She later says, “I didn’t learn moderation by going to bed early, by having one job, one partner, one passion, one cause, one drink-one anything. One was never enough. A hundred visions, a thousand tries. What did it take for me to pay attention? To be awake?” (Beaubien, handout). She is saying she learned from doing things the bad way. I can really relate to this because I came from bad virtue, and for a while, I had no sense of morals. I intentionally hurt people, and myself, because I thought it was okay. I stole, used, and lied to people, on top of physically harming myself with drugs and alcohol. I didn’t think what I was doing was wrong, and I was going down a really bad path. It took having a near death experience for me to realize that I didn’t want to live like that anymore, and I really wanted to fix myself. I truly believe that if I hadn’t gotten so far off the right path, I wouldn’t have the same moral views I do