Virtue through Challenge
Moral Development and Self-transformation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11953205 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alistair Miller (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 785-800 |
| Publication date | 2017-10-11 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Philosophy of Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0309-8249 • E-ISSN: 1467-9752 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9752.12266 |
| OpenAlex | W2761048429 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 22 |
In this article, I argue that although the Aristotelian ideal of leading a virtuous life for its own sake is admirable, conventional Aristotelian and neo-Aristotelian accounts of how it might be realised are empirically inadequate: Habituation is unlikely to produce ‘a love of virtue’, practical experience cannot then produce practical judgement or phronesis, and Aristotle's conception of a virtuous life excludes all but an idealised elite. Instead, I argue that two conceptually distinct aspects of moral development can be identified: the ‘Aristotelian’ and the ‘Humean’. In the former, the desire to lead a virtuous life for its own sake is produced through certain forms of challenging experience which, by disturbing and decentring the egoistic self, evoke a personal moral transformation. In the latter, the capacity to act well in specific social situations is the outcome of a process of socialisation, first in upbringing and later through initiation into the practices of adult life. Both aspects should be promoted in moral education for together they produce something akin to full virtue in the Aristotelian sense: Practical wisdom and practical judgement—or phronesis. Moreover, ‘the good life’ is best conceived as encompassing a variety of transcendent goods. To live a virtuous life for its own sake constitutes one good or form of human flourishing; but it is not the only one
Discernment · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Eudaimonia · Flourishing · Ideal (ethics · Judgement · Phronesis · Practical wisdom · Sociology · The good life · Virtue · Virtue ethics · Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare · Ethics in medical practice · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Religions, values, and peak-experiences
Varieties of Virtue Ethics
Intelligent Virtue
A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Service-Learning on Students
Essays on Aristotle’s Ethics
Whose Justice? Which Rationality?
A Critique of Positive Psychology-or ‘The New Science of Happiness’
Cultivating Sentimental Dispositions Through Aristotelian Habituation
To Serve and Learn
An Aristotelian Model of Moral Development
Practical Intelligence and the Virtues
The Fragility of Goodness
| Citations per year | 0.63 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2025 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |