Abstract: Herbart regarded morality as the "whole purpose" of human, and moral education is realized through character formation. Herbart overcame Kant's dualism of character, regarded human character as an educable character, and established educational action and moral judgment on an aesthetic causality. Through these two efforts, Herbart developed the moral judgment concepts of the ethic. On the other hand, he constructed a systematic educational theory to explain how the practical concepts influence education and pointed out the ways to achieve morality through education. In this way, Herbart formed a mutual and interacting relationship between educational action and practical ideas at the perceptual-aesthetic level in his theory about the formation of adolescents' character.

Key words: charakterbildung, pedagogy, ethic, interaction, Herbart, moral education