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Single Idea 5150

[catalogued under 25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / c. Teaching]

Full Idea

Intellectual virtue owes both its inception and its growth chiefly to instruction, and so needs time and experience; moral goodness, on the other hand, is the result of habit.

Gist of Idea

Intellectual virtue arises from instruction (and takes time), whereas moral virtue result from habit

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1103a15)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.91


A Reaction

If one adds to this his idea of practical reason as the intellectual virtue that makes the moral virtues possible, one has a good formula for running a school. The formula: 1) instruction about theory, 2) practical experience, 3) drilling good habits.