The Virtue of Temperance as the Goal of Education – about the Forgotten Virtue from the Pedagogical Perspective

Abstract

The analysis undertaken in the article is aimed at answering the question of the meaning of the virtue of temperance from the perspective of individual development and, therefore, of its significance as the goal of education. The research was carried out using the hermeneutic method. The object of the analyses was the account of the virtue of temperance formulated by Thomas Aquinas and modern neothomists. Reflection on the teleology of education was the cognitive horizon of the analyses. In the first point, a discussion of the goals of education was presented. The second point contains the characteristics of the virtue of temperance as a condition of good morally behaviour. In the third point, the determinants of the virtue of temperance associated with the quality of reasoning and rational desires was discussed. In the last point, the author refers to the main question. He tries to answer the question of the importance of temperance for rational and morally good actions. It should be emphasised that temperance is not a limitation of the experience of pleasure, but it is about intelligent use of pleasure to achieve positive goals. In some cases, avoiding pleasure can be bad. In other situations, moral good can be realised when the individual gives up pleasure. The analysis also leads to the conclusion that in modern pedagogy the importance of upbringing to temperance is not understood.