Moral Efficiency or Moral Competency?

Abstract

The question about the concept of moral education is one of the most important questions within the discipline of pedagogy. There are numerous answers that vary depending on the cultural context as well as anthropological, epistemological or ethical assumptions dominant within it. As a response to this issue, ancient thinkers developed the theory of moral virtues, which are the culmination of moral education and whose development is included in the teleology of education. A concept of the development of virtues was formulated, for instance, by Aristotle. It was then creatively advanced by Thomas Aquinas, and these days Alasdair MacIntyre and neo-Thomists refer to it. However, in today’s discussions about moral education it is the category of moral competence that is more often mentioned and it is based mainly on the theory of communicative action by Jürgen Habermas. This category appears, for instance, in the official documents that describe the effects of education. The author of this article raises a question of whether moral education can be reduced to the development of moral competency. In an attempt to answer this question, the author describes characteristic features of both categories and then analyses pros and cons of various solutions.