Webber, J. (2006) Virtue, character and situation. Journal of Moral Philosophy, 3 (2). pp. 193-213. ISSN 1745-5243
Abstract
Philosophers have recently argued that traditional discussions of virtue and character presuppose an account of behaviour that experimental psychology has shown to be false. Behaviour does not issue from global traits such as prudence, temperance, courage or fairness, they claim, but from local traits such as sailing-in-rough-weather-with-friends-courage and office-party-temperance. The data employed provides evidence for this view only if we understand it in the light of a behaviourist construal of traits in terms of stimulus and response, rather than in the light of the more traditional construal in terms of inner events such as inclinations. More recent experiments have shown this traditional conception to have greater explanatory and predictive power than its behaviourist rival. So we should retain the traditional conception, and hence reject the proposed alteration to our understanding of behaviour. This discussion has further implications for future philosophical investigations of character and virtue.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | Copyright © 2006 by SAGE Publications. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Journal of Moral Philosophy. |
Keywords: | character traits, situationism, social psychology, virtue ethics |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of Philosophy (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Repository Officer |
Date Deposited: | 23 May 2006 |
Last Modified: | 04 Jun 2014 11:12 |
Published Version: | http://mpj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/3/2/19... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Sage Publications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/1740468106065492 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:1213 |