Education and Aristotle’s theory of virtue and character development

26/02/2025 7 min Episodio 32
Education and Aristotle’s theory of virtue and character development

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Episode Synopsis

Aristotle (384-322 BC) made a large understatement in his work “Politics” by writing that “education is the best provision for old age.” He should have written that “education is the best investment one can make.” John Vespasian explains that the acquisition of a good character (a virtuous character) is the key purpose of education. Aristotle wrote in book six of his “Nicomachean Ethics” that the primary goal of wisdom is to differentiate good from evil. In the Aristotelian tradition, character development includes knowledge accumulation (history, literature) and logic training (mathematical, causal, ethical), so that students learn to assess facts and draw correct conclusions. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/education-and-aristotles-theory-of-virtue-and-character-development/