No genes?

After having finally gone through the book I probably found the chapter I like most in Adams’s book at the end. In chapter 12, Adams goes through probably his best thought processes and reasoning to come up with some good points about moral education. Although there is A LOT he didn’t cover in the area of moral education (which he admits by saying anything short of an entire book dedicated to the subject isn’t enough), I agree with a lot of what he has to say. But I think the main fault in this chapter is that there is one major factor of virtue education (if it could be even called “education”) that Adams doesn’t discuss (or at least I don’t think he discusses): genetics. The title of the chapter is “can virtue ethics be taught?” But if the answer is no, then what is left? Is it genetics? We have alluded to it at some points in the class when we talk about people who are “naturally” virtuous or “naturally” morally good. Personally I think genetics does play a role in the formation of one’s virtues. For example, if someone is more prone to violence and aggression because of their genes than the formation of his or her virtues will probably be different from the start of that person’s life. Adam says it himself on page 213, “I take it to be obvious that all moral education takes place in a social context.” But even in a general section on moral education which this chapter is, I think Adams is at least a little bit at fault not to mention the influence of genetics on the formation of one’s virtues.