Practice and Enlightenment: Aristotle and Kant on Moral Education

Abstract

Aristotle argues that moral virtue is a kind of habit, and that learning virtue involves a kind of practice and habituation. Some, like Kant, have worried whether this sort of account is really not more than mechanistic training. I argue that this worry is unfounded in Aristotle’s case. Aristotle’s account has otherwise come into favour in recent years as an attractive model for character and moral education. Kant’s ethics have generally seemed less appealing in these areas. Kant argues that the moral law can be known a priori without special experience or education. Whether Kant can have an interesting or attractive account of becoming good is not obvious. Drawing comparisons to the favoured Aristotelian account, and focusing on Kant’s conception of virtue and the highest good, I argue that he can and does.