Today the law school hosted a fascinating speaker on the topic of Virtue Ethics. The speaker incorporated wisdom from Aristotle:
He looked to both education through reason and education through habit.
By the latter he meant learning by doing -
Anything that we have to learn to do we learn by the actual doing of it...
We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate ones, brave by doing brave ones.
(Aristotle Niconachean Ethics, Book II, p.91). Such learning is complemented by reason - and this involves teaching 'the causes of things'. We can see here a connection with more recent theorists that have emphasized experience, reflection and connecting to theories.
The speaker asked if lawyers promote virtues when they persuade jurors. He also said that virtues are best used as a self evaluative tool rather than an external judgment weapon.
