Teaching phronesis to aspiring police officers: some preliminary philosophical, developmental and pedagogical reflections

Abstract According to Aristotle, the crucial meta-virtue of phronesis (practical wisdom) is cultivated through teaching and experience. But he remains mostly silent on the details of this developmental picture and its educational ramifications. This article focuses on the ‘taught’ element of phronesis development in the context of police ethics education. I begin by piecing together the developmental trajectory that Aristotle suggests towards full virtue, up to and including phronesis development. I also briefly list ten potential weaknesses of this picture. I then present a reconstructed Aristotelian model of phronesis and explain how the teaching element of phronesis education could be executed, with an illustration from an ongoing phronesis intervention for UK police-science students. However, I go on to dampen the enthusiasm about this ‘taught’ component, by explaining how relatively small the ‘zone of proximal development’ is that can be targeted by scaffolded teaching. Finally, I elicit some implications of the conclusion that most of phronesis development will need to be ‘caught’ from gradually unfolding personal and professional experiences.