Author Raja Halwani discusses how virtue ethics illuminates the three central areas of our lives -- care, love, and sex -- which are often considered to be crucial to a well-lived life. Halwani concludes that virtue ethics allows for those sexual lifestyles that are deemed by traditional morality to be wrong -- promiscuity, open relationships, and sex work -- which boldly counters the conservative viewpoint of many virtue ethicists. This argument about the relationship between romantic love and virtue also examines the works of other philosophers.
The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have seen a renaissance in the study of virtue -- a topic that has prevailed in philosophical work since the time of Aristotle. Several major developments have conspired to mark this new age. Foremost among them, some argue, is the birth of virtue ethics, an approach to ethics that focuses on virtue in place of consequentialism (the view that normative properties depend only on consequences) or deontology (the study of what we have a moral duty to do). The emergence of new virtue theories also marks this new wave of work on virtue. Put simply, these are theories about what virtue is, and they include Kantian and utilitarian virtue theories. Concurrently, virtue ethics is being applied to other fields where it hasn't been used before, including bioethics and education. In addition to these developments, the study of virtue in epistemological theories has become increasingly widespread to the point that it has spawned a subfield known as 'virtue epistemology.' This volume therefore provides a representative overview of philosophical work on virtue. It is divided into seven parts: conceptualizations of virtue, historical and religious accounts, contemporary virtue ethics and theories of virtue, central concepts and issues, critical examinations, applied virtue ethics, and virtue epistemology. Forty-two chapters by distinguished scholars offer insights and directions for further research. In addition to philosophy, authors also deal with virtues in non-western philosophical traditions, religion, and psychological perspectives on virtue.
In recent decades, many philosophers have considered the strengths and weaknesses of a virtue-centered approach to moral theory. Much less attention has been given to how such an approach bears on issues in applied ethics. The essays in this volume apply a virtue-centered perspective to a variety of contemporary moral issues, and in so doing offer a fresh and illuminating perspective. Some of the essays focus on a particular virtue and its application to one or more realms of applied ethics, such as temperance and sex or humility and environmental ethics. Other chapters focus on an issue in applied ethics and bring several virtues into a discussion of that issue or realm of life, such as sport, education, and business. Finally, several of the chapters engage relevant psychological research as well as current neuroscience, which enhances the strength of the philosophical arguments.
Virtue and Vice, Moral and Epistemic presents a series of essays by leading ethicists and epistemologists who offer the latest thinking on the moral and intellectual virtues and vices, the structure of virtue theory, and the connections between virtue and emotion. Cuts across two fields of philosophical inquiry by featuring a dual focus on ethics and epistemology Features cutting-edge work on the moral and intellectual virtues and vices, the structure of virtue theory, and the connections between virtue and emotion Presents a radical new moral theory that makes exemplars the foundation of ethics; and new theories of epistemic vices such as epistemic malevolence and epistemic self-indulgence Represents one of the few collections to address both the moral virtues and the epistemic virtues Explores a new approach in epistemology - virtue epistemology - which emphasizes the importance of intellectual character traits
"Mary Wollstonecraft revolutionized ancient traditions of the virtues in modern and Christian modes for feminist and abolitionist aims. Formed by religious traditions of dissent, Wollstonecraft radically altered the garments of the eighteenth-century religious, ethical, political, and aesthetic imagination. She sought to discard sexed virtues, to shed corsets that restrict women's roles and rights, to expose and break chains of domination, to exchange the vicious finery of the rich for virtue in rags, and to design garb fit for a society in which all participate in defining and cultivating common goods. The virtues and debate about them remain indispensable to modern Christian traditions and democratic societies. When wed, virtues and contestation are among the goods shared in common. Canonical in women and gender studies, feminist philosophy, political science, literary studies, and history, Wollstonecraft is mostly unknown or ignored in contemporary virtue ethics, theology, and religious studies. Modern Virtue seeks to transform prominent narratives in each. Wollstonecraft scholars debate whether theology is ornamental or foundational for her radical arguments. Her use of the wardrobe metaphor provides a fitting alternative. Modern Virtue also challenges influential and competing narratives about the virtues in modernity. These stories render modern virtue a contradiction in terms, common goods obsolete. Modern accounts of the virtues must address this two-fold conundrum: systems of domination thwart virtue and mask vice, and the virtues are integral to just socio-political transformation. Wollstonecraft's does just this"--
Virtue ethics has emerged as a distinct field within moral theory - whether as an alternative account of right action or as a conception of normativity which departs entirely from the obligatoriness of morality - and has proved itself invaluable to many aspects of contemporary applied ethics. Virtue ethics now flourishes in philosophy, sociology and theology and its applications extend to law, politics and bioethics. "The Handbook of Virtue Ethics" brings together leading international scholars to provide an overview of the field. Each chapter summarizes and assesses the most important work on a particular topic and sets this work in the context of historical developments. Taking a global approach by embracing a variety of major cultural traditions along with the Western, the "Handbook" maps the emergence of virtue ethics and provides a framework for future developments.
For a century and a half, the artists and intellectuals of Europe have scorned the bourgeoisie. And for a millennium and a half, the philosophers and theologians of Europe have scorned the marketplace. The bourgeois life, capitalism, Mencken’s “booboisie” and David Brooks’s “bobos”—all have been, and still are, framed as being responsible for everything from financial to moral poverty, world wars, and spiritual desuetude. Countering these centuries of assumptions and unexamined thinking is Deirdre McCloskey’s The Bourgeois Virtues, a magnum opus that offers a radical view: capitalism is good for us. McCloskey’s sweeping, charming, and even humorous survey of ethical thought and economic realities—from Plato to Barbara Ehrenreich—overturns every assumption we have about being bourgeois. Can you be virtuous and bourgeois? Do markets improve ethics? Has capitalism made us better as well as richer? Yes, yes, and yes, argues McCloskey, who takes on centuries of capitalism’s critics with her erudition and sheer scope of knowledge. Applying a new tradition of “virtue ethics” to our lives in modern economies, she affirms American capitalism without ignoring its faults and celebrates the bourgeois lives we actually live, without supposing that they must be lives without ethical foundations. High Noon, Kant, Bill Murray, the modern novel, van Gogh, and of course economics and the economy all come into play in a book that can only be described as a monumental project and a life’s work. The Bourgeois Virtues is nothing less than a dazzling reinterpretation of Western intellectual history, a dead-serious reply to the critics of capitalism—and a surprising page-turner.
The overriding rationale behind this book is a desire to enrich the lives of college students by introducing them to the practice of philosophical thought in an accessible and engaging manner. The text has over one hundred classical and contemporary readings that facilitate studying each philosophical issue from a variety of perspectives, giving instructors the opportunity to choose a set of readings that matches the individual needs of each class. It includes many selections by philosophers whose works are often ignored or underrepresented in other introductory texts. The initial reading, "The Role of Philosophy," is a relevant, clear, and absorbing introduction to the discipline of philosophy. It uses everyday life situations to give students a solid foothold before they journey into specific philosophical topics. In addition, every section of the book has its own special introduction that connects each topic to students’ personal lives. The surrounding narrative is designed to be conversational and comprehensible. Special features include a section on the role of logic, and writing a philosophy paper, two useful tools for approaching and analyzing philosophical writing for students who are new to philosophy. The book is accompanied by a companion website (www.routledge.com/cw/Baronett), with many helpful features, including (for students) review questions for all readings in the book, videos, and 66 related entries taken from the student-friendly Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy and (for instructors) 2,500 questions and answers."
This collection features essays from top experts in ethics and philosophy of love that offer varying perspectives on the value of a contemporary secular virtue of chastity. The virtue of chastity has traditionally been portrayed as an excellent personal disposition concerning the ideal ordering of sexual desire such that the person desires that which is actually good for both the self and others affected by his or her sexual desires and actions. Yet, for roughly the past half century chastity has been increasingly portrayed as an unnecessary ideal with few secular benefits that could not be otherwise obtained. Instead, chastity is sometimes portrayed as an odd kind of religious asceticism with few secular benefits. The essays in this volume ask whether there may be advantages to reconsidering a contemporary virtue of chastity. A recovered and reconceptualized concept of chastity can offer partial solutions to problems associated with externalized sexual desire, including sweeping patterns of sexual harassment, the high divorce/relationship-failure rate, and widespread pornography use. Sexual Ethics in a Secular Age will appeal to researchers and advanced students interested in the philosophy of sex and love, virtue ethics, and philosophical accounts of secularity.
With twenty-five essays, seven of which are new to the eighth edition, this best-selling volume examines the nature, morality, and social meanings of contemporary sexual phenomena. Topics include: sexual desire and activity, masturbation, Sexual orientation, asexuality, transgender issues, Zoophilia, rape, casual sex and promiscuity, love and sex, polyamory, sexual consent, sexual, perversion, sexual ethics, objectification, BDSM, sex and technology, sex and race, and sex work. Updated and new discussion questions offer students starting points for debate in both the classroom and the bedroom.
