ABSTRACT. Ethics cannot be taught, not in the sense in which all factual teaching occurs. If someone learns, that individual has already lived according to a moral standard. The decision to be attentive and willing to learn is, in other words, not teachable; it is the independent contribution of the agent. Nothing in this interpretation of ethics—its special place in the array of the human sciences—makes it into a mystical affair, which should have its place in the area of the supernatural or beyond the boundaries of language.