Virtue, Skill, and Mastery

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-132
Author(s):  
Aaron Stalnaker
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Theory ◽  
Ritual Propriety ◽  
Confucian Virtue ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines the early Confucian conception of virtuous mastery or expertise. It develops an account of early Confucian virtue theory, bolstered by sustained studies of ritual propriety and wisdom. It argues that virtues should be understood as forms of mastery that combine both skill and virtue. The chapter analyzes competing interpretations of Aristotle’s influential discussion of skill and virtue. It supports Russell and Annas, who accent the way Aristotelian virtues are like skills, or involve skill, against MacIntyre and others who find deep differences between skill and virtue. Virtue does not appear automatically, but is rather something people must practice to develop, and like other forms of mastery produces a spectrum of achievement.

The Rule Worship and Idealization Objections Revisited and Resisted

2020 ◽  
pp. 131-155
Author(s):  
David Copp
Keyword(s):  
Order Theory ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Virtue Theory ◽  
Rule Consequentialism ◽  
Act Consequentialism ◽  
The Way

There are two familiar and important challenges to the rule consequentialist picture, Smart’s “rule worship objection” and the “idealization objection.” This chapter defends rule consequentialism (RC) against these challenges. It argues that to satisfactorily meet the rule worship objection, we need to reconceptualize RC. We need to think of it as not fundamentally a rival to act consequentialism or deontology or virtue theory. Instead, it can potentially adjudicate among these views. It is best viewed as a “second-order” theory that rests on a view about the nature and point of morality. The rule worship objection can be answered if we interpret RC in this way. The idealization objection can seem more difficult because it appears to arise from the basic RC approach to evaluating rules. This chapter suggests, however, that the idealization objection boils down to a familiar problem about conflicts of pro tanto duties. RC can handle it in the way that it handles such conflict.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
pp. 157-164
Author(s):  
Kent Dunnington
Keyword(s):  
Alasdair Macintyre ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Virtue Theory ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
The Way

Because it is so clearly indexed to Christian theological convictions, the account of humility developed in this book may appear irrelevant to the field of virtue theory broadly conceived. The Conclusion argues that this way of thinking fails to recognize that the rediscovery of the virtue tradition was originally animated—especially in the thought of Alasdair MacIntyre—by the realization that the moral life is more deeply tradition-dependent than reigning normative theories allow. This book should then be thought of as an exercise in general virtue theory insofar as it attempts carefully to display how one particular virtue, humility, is tradition-dependent all the way down. The Conclusion argues that attempts to specify the virtues in less tradition-dependent ways actually conceal ideological commitments to a liberal political agenda.

The Deontological Foundation of Neo-Confucian Virtue Ethics

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-353
Author(s):  
George J. Aulisio ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Virtue Theory ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Confucian Virtue

I show that Neo-Confucianism is practiced in two ways: (1) deontologically and (2) as a virtue ethical theory. When fully appreciated, Neo-Confucianism is a virtue ethical theory, but to set out on the path of the sage and behave like a junzi, Neo-Confucianism must first be practiced deontologically. I show this by examining the importance of Neo-Confucian metaphysics to ethical practice and by drawing out the major practical differences between “lesser learning” and “higher learning.” In my view, Neo-Confucianism can be practiced deontologically because some adherents may never move to practicing Neo-Confucianism as a virtue theory.

A Confucian Virtue Theory of Supererogation

2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 328-341
Author(s):  
Lei Zhong
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Theory ◽  
Confucian Virtue

The Broad Structure of Buddhist Ethics

2021 ◽  
pp. 18-28
Author(s):  
Jay L. Garfield
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Theory ◽  
Buddhist Ethics ◽  
Ethical Thought ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Moral Phenomenology ◽  
Deontological Theory ◽  
Consequentialist Theory ◽  
Broad Structure ◽  
The Way

This chapter argues that Buddhist ethics does not fit into any of the standard Western metaethical theories. It is neither an instance of a virtue theory, nor of a deontological theory, nor of a consequentialist theory. It is closer to a sentimentalist theory, but different from those as well. Instead, it defends a reading of Buddhist ethics as a moral phenomenology and as particularist, utilizing casuistic reasoning. That is, Buddhist ethics is concerned primarily with the transformation of experience, of the way we perceive ourselves and other moral agents and patients. This chapter also argues that the metaphor of path structures Buddhist ethical thought.

Self-sacrifice for in-group's history: A diachronic perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Babińska ◽  
Michal Bilewicz
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Psychology ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Emotional Events ◽  
Reciprocal Process ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe problem of extended fusion and identification can be approached from a diachronic perspective. Based on our own research, as well as findings from the fields of social, political, and clinical psychology, we argue that the way contemporary emotional events shape local fusion is similar to the way in which historical experiences shape extended fusion. We propose a reciprocal process in which historical events shape contemporary identities, whereas contemporary identities shape interpretations of past traumas.

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