ABSTRACT

Can a ‘real university’ do anything to promote desirable character traits in its students, or would that be contrary to the openness that should characterize university life? Should there not be a vigorous debate, in a university, about whether there is such a thing as a perspective on the world that has sufficient validity to serve as a basis for attempting to develop, in students, a settled disposition to behave in ‘virtuous’ ways? Should not every such perspective be challenged, shown up as a mask for selfish interests? Is not it the teacher’s role, like Socrates in the early dialogues, to leave his or her students less rather than more convinced of possessing the truth about particular virtues?