Being of good character

Abstract

Calls have been made recently for the renewal of public and private virtues, not least because of the serious scandals that have beset our banks, political system, as well as our health and social welfare provisions. The public appear to want people to be of good character, and so improve the quality of public life. And yet Britain today is a pluralistic society in which our values and virtues appear to be constantly changing and where children are exposed to a variety of perspectives on moral right and wrong. We seem to regard identifying with any set of virtues to be problematic and we often appear to lack any clear conception of what virtues are, which virtues are to be promoted, as well as knowledge of how to promote them.