Cardinal virtue habituation as liberal citizenship education

I argue that Rawlsian liberals should consider cardinal virtue habituation as a legitimate form of moral education and citizenship education in publicly funded schools. In Political Liberalism , Rawls acknowledges that a liberal government can and should promote certain virtues or traits of moral character in citizens, but only those traits that are justified by their conducing to the stability of the constitutional liberal democracy over time. I argue that the cardinal moral virtues—courage, justice, practical wisdom and moderation—are indeed necessary for democratic stability. Furthermore, these virtues are less likely to violate Rawlsian ‘neutrality of aim’ than some more robustly liberal programmes of moral and citizenship education. So cardinal virtue habituation should be a serious candidate for inclusion in the curriculum in publicly funded schools.