This is not a completely uncontroversial conception. Developing habits in medical training It should seem obvious to you by this time that, according to Aristotle and those who are influenced by Aristotle, you can t teach morality from a book. It s a little bit strange, though, to think of medical professionals in exactly the same way as an Aristotelian individual developing moral character. After all, medical professionals aren t children. It is usually during the period of time when one is very young that we talk about developing emotional responses to certain situations, and practicing so that we develop good habits.
Moral virtue is also already there.
However, these values are vulnerable to change during the training process. Habits are developed during medical training that determine how you will practice independently. Although many people think they can just put off developing their ethical habits until after they are done with training, this isn t realistic if habits and emotive responses are as important as Aristotle and these contemporary writers claim. Hopefully it can form the basis of some of our seminar discussion. I will make just a few summary remarks about the Dwyer article.