Explicitly incorporating virtues into actuarial education

This paper outlines a framework for explicitly including ethics in actuarial education. The framework includes integrity, the cardinal virtues (justice, prudence, self-control and courage), and vocation. It is based on a traditional understanding of ethics, and it is argued that it has the potential to be widely acceptable. Justification, from philosophy, is found mainly in virtue ethics, and the work of Alasdair MacIntyre. The framework is concerned with matters of character as well as behaviour and ultimate outcomes (which are the respective concerns of apparently competing deontological and teleological theories). Integrity and the cardinal virtues can be found within current professional standards or, it is argued in the case of courage, should be there. We come to appreciate and display the virtues as we are inducted into a professional community by teachers and mentors. Our view of ethics is incomplete, however, without acknowledgement of our own weaknesses and failures, and an understanding of the role of regulation. Such understanding should include insight into the way in which ideologies and institutions can pervert ethics for the benefit of vested interests. Finally, suggestions are made as to how the framework of the virtues can be included in the actuarial syllabuses.