Abstract

Against the background of enormous interest in virtue ethics, a new trend in moral education has appeared. This new trend, called ‘the virtue approach to moral education’, faces a strong challenge. If virtues are rooted in and developed within practices of a particular tradition, how is moral relativism to be avoided? Ironically, Alasdair MacIntyre, the foremost proponent of virtue ethics, has drawn the pessimistic conclusion that a shared public system of moral education is impossible in a plural society like ours. This paper aims to challenge MacIntyre’s pessimistic conclusion, and to explore the viability of moral education in virtues as a shared public practice.