A Critical Study of Three Prevalent Perspectives towards Moral Education Based on Allameh Tabatabai’s Point of View

Moral education is an important part of man’s educational program that develops his ethical, theoretical, and practical talents and which secures his worldly and heavenly prosperity. There are different approaches to moral education throughout the world; in order to benefit from the experiences of other countries it is necessary initially, to evaluate their educational experiences, takening into consideration the criterion of Islamic intellectual and religious principles. This study has been conducted with the aim of critically examining the most common approaches to moral education in the world and their strengths and weaknesses based on Allameh Tabatabai’s (May Allah be pleased with him) viewpoints. Research questions were: From Allameh Tabatabai’s point of view what are the component for an effective ethical educational program which leads to moral action and behavior? Also, do developmental-cognitive approach, caring approach, character education cover Allameh Tabatabai's objectives? The research method used was the analytical-comparative-critical approach. First, the three above mentioned approaches were explained, and then, based on Allameh’s perspective, the essential elements of effective moral education (knowledge, emotions, ethical, moral action, moral habits, faith, Divine piety, and righteous society) were criticized. Findings showed that each of these approaches only emphasize certain aspects of moral education. As a result, these approaches can only provide secular ethics which according to Allameh Tabatabai, apart from being very different from religious ethics, has no enforcement action.