Moral education serves at least five purposes, according to J. Budziszewski:
- It reinforces what we know, because the mere fact that we know something is wrong is not enough to keep us from doing it.
- It elicits what we know, because we know many things without knowing that we know them.
- It guards what we know, because although deep conscience cannot err, surface conscience can err in all too many ways.
- It builds upon what we know, because only the most general and basic matters of right and wrong are known to us immediately, and second knowledge must be added to first.
- Finally, it confronts us about what we know, because sometimes we need to be told “You know better.”
—J. Budziszewski, What We Can’t Not Know: A Guide, rev. ed. (Ignatius Press, 2011) p. 124 [my emphasis and formatting].