Values and virtues: How should they be taught?

Courses in medical ethics, bioethics, and other humanities subjects flouris h in professional schools, yet a tension exists about whether their teachin g goals should include trying to make students more humane and virtuous. so me hold that these courses should help instill values and virtues professed by the medical community, such as fidelity, compassion, empathy, respect, and other qualities that will make students not only better professionals b ut also better and more humane people. Others reject this role, arguing tha t humanities courses should teach students the knowledge and skills to beco me better problem solvers regarding theoretical, moral, and social issues; they regard it to be counterproductive, presumptuous, or futile to try to m ake students better persons. The author examines the extent to which these views are incompatible, arguing that a cogent philosophy of education can b e neither value-free nor fully independent of moral choices. Within limits, diverse approaches to incorporating values in teaching can be a strength.