And when we are unclear about where and when the exceptions are called for, we must refer back to our moral exemplars, and act as they would in the respective situations.
Another key theme in virtue ethics is moral understanding. This concept is often viewed as a sort of moral wisdom that is attained through experience, emotional maturity, and a considerable amount of self-reflection and training. An essential aspect to moral understanding is the awareness our own emotions. Our emotions allow us to be in-tune with our environment and determine how to appropriately react to its various factors. Our emotions also help us mature our sense of right and wrong, and motivate us to be moral because our emotions will reward us when we have done the right thing and abstained from the wrong.
The last key theme in virtue ethics is moral education. The idea of a moral education stems from notion that we are not born with virtues, and that we will only attain the proper lever of moral wisdom in order to become virtuous in our education. This is an evolution that occurs throughout one's lifetime.The notion is that humans, from their youth, need to be taught through good teachers, parents, peers, etc. The most important stage would be when one is young because they are most impressionable and vulnerable to adapting other's opinions. We only acquire our virtues through training, experience, and practice. For example, when we are young, our elders teach us the expectations for how to treat other people, with strict do's and don'ts, just as one would learn when they begin learning to play an instrument. As we grow up, we begin to grasp a firm understanding of the rules and start developing our moral wisdom, just as a pianist understands how to read music and the proper technique for playing a strict interpretation of the score. Once this moral wisdom is fully fostered, we can stray from the rules when we see it morally fit to do so, just as the pianist will begin to adapt his or her own artistic style where they see fit.