Aaron Stalnaker states in his book, Mastery and Dependence, that many people question the existence of “ethical experts” (Stalnaker, 2). Stalnaker pushes back on this sentiment and argue for the existence of (also the need for) ethical masters. Even with the existence of moral experts, however, the question of “what motivates people to want to learn from them” remains to be answered. I argue the answer is in seeing moral teachers as idols.
Agreeing with Stalnaker on the belief that moral teachers are important for society, I explore the gravitas of moral excellence, which some ancient Greek and Confucian thinkers see as motivation to follow moral teachers. This attraction evolves into idolization for one’s teacher, which is key to moral pedagogy.