Exemplarism in moral education: Problems with applicability and indoctrination

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article introduces an account of moral education grounded in Zagzebski’s recent Exemplarist Moral Theory and discusses two problems that have to be solved for the account to become a realistic alternative to other educational models on the market, namely the limited-applicability problem and the problem of indoctrination. The first problem raises worries about the viability of the account in ordinary circumstances. The second charges the proposed educational model with indoctrinating students. The main goal of this article is to show how an exemplar-based account of moral education can handle both problems without compromising its structure and upshot.