Practical intelligence and the virtues / Daniel C. Russell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Russell, Daniel C., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Virtue.

Ethics.

Virtues.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 439 pages)

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

One of the most important developments in modern moral philosophy is the resurgence of interest in the virtues. In this new book, Daniel Russell explores two important hopes for such an approach to moral thought: that starting from the virtues should cast light on what makes an action right, and that notions like character, virtue, and vice should yield a plausible picture of human psychology. Russell argues that the key to each of these hopes is an understanding of the cognitiveand deliberative skills involved in the virtues. If right action is defined in terms of acting generously or kindly,

Contents:

Practical intelligence and the virtues : an aristotelian approach

Deliberation

Phronesis

The phronesis controversy

Phronesis, virtue, and right action

Right action for virtue ethics

Right action and serious practical concerns

Two constraints on right action

Must virtue ethics accept the act constraint?

Can virtue ethics accept the act constraint?

Right action and virtuous motives

The structure of agent-based virtue ethics

Virtuous acts and virtuous motivations

Why virtues are virtues

Reasons for virtue

Right action and 'the virtuous person'

Doing without 'the virtuous person'

'Virtuous enough'

Ideals and aspirations

Virtues, persons, and 'the virtuous person'

Representing 'the virtuous person'

The enumeration problem

The enumeration problem : an introduction

Enumeration and overall virtuous actions

Enumeration and overall virtuous persons

Enumeration and naturalism

Individuating the virtues

From individuation to enumeration

'The same reasons'

Reasons, individuation, and cardinality

Implications for hard virtue ethics

Magnificence, generosity, and subordination

Magnificence as a virtue

Subordination, specialization, and cardinality

Alternatives to the subordination view

Situations, dispositions, and virtues

Situations and broad-based dispositions

Situationism and dispositionism

Situationism and personality

Idiographic predictions of consistency

Situations and dispositions : examining the evidence

How to test broad-based dispositions for cross-situational consistency

Putting dispositions to the test : four representative experiments

Interpreting the findings

From situationism to virtue theory

Situationism : from empirical to philosophical psychology

Situationism and virtue theory : normative adequacy

From common sense to virtue theory?

Out-sourcing the empirical work?

A cognitive-affective approach to the virtues

Defending hard virtue theory

Phronesis and the unity of the virtues

The unity of which virtues?

Attributive and model theses

Responsibility for character

Depth, self-construction, and responsibility

On responsibility and ultimate responsibility for character

What is critical distance?

From critical distance to responsibility

Objections to the critical distance view.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [415]-428) and indexes.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-969844-9

1-282-26835-X

9786612268359

0-19-156988-7

OCLC:

438155612