ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the problems of Aristotelian character education found in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics that current character educationists tend to sweep under the carpet. It illustrates the two theses and their counter-intuitive ramifications by dint of three stories concerning imaginary persons and offers a reconstruction of the aforementioned theses which while going beyond Aristotle's own texts remains faithful to essential elements of his moral and educational theory. The chapter explores some of the implications for issues of contemporary character education by considering current literatures on radical self-change to bear on this Aristotelian reconstruction. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics famously starts with a search for the supreme good for human beings, and while granting that it must be eudaimonia or flourishing. For if the Aristotelian reconstruction bears scrutiny, an experience of self-estrangement is required before the person brought up in bad habits can acquire the motivation to embark on their arduous journey through the sewers to the palace of a virtuous life.
