ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author discusses a brief sketch of pre-Enlightenment ethics, concentrating primarily on Aristotle because there is an impressive revival of interest in his approach. Then he looks at Enlightenment ethics and post-Enlightenment approaches. After that, the author examines approaches to moral education that run parallel to the schools of moral philosophy. When he discusses moral education, he says considerably more about character education that traces its roots, at least in part, to Aristotle. Aristotle himself said that human beings persistently seek better ways than their ancestors have bequeathed them and that a characteristic of a good society's exemplars is that they go beyond their traditions and seek fuller, richer descriptions of the good. Character education, aimed at the inculcation of specific virtues, depends heavily on the identification and description of exemplars. The character lessons distributed by the Character Development League used biographical accounts as their centerpiece.
