Virtue ethics and character development at the United States Air Force Academy.

Our nation requires that service academies "develop officers of character." "Character," by its very nature, is deep; it is an embedded aspect of one's personhood. As such, character will invariably draw upon one's deeply-held beliefs. But our pluralistic, liberal nation is—and should be—anathema to mandate citizens' deeply-held beliefs. So a service academy is faced with a seemingly intractable problem: it must not mandate the deeply-held beliefs that necessarily inform the very character development that is mandated. I argue that virtue ethics can provide a feasible solution. Virtue ethics is compatible with diverse justificatory frameworks. Thus, the state can undergird a character education program with virtue ethics, while servicemembers are still free to choose the justificatory framework for those virtues. This upholds both the servicemembers' civil liberties and the nation's mandate to develop officers of character.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Veseth Toms, Kathryn, 1980-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Beckwith, Francis.

• Virtue ethics.
• Character development.
• Religious freedom.
• Liberal values.
• Military training.

Statement dc:rights

• Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/11918

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/11918