Embodiment and Virtue in a Comparative Perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID14760412
AuthorsJonathan Schofer (corresponding author), Jonathan Wyn Schofer
Year2007
Volume35
Issue4
Pages715-728
Publication date2007-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religious Ethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0384-9694 • E-ISSN: 1467-9795
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9795.2007.00329.x
OpenAlexW2168373947
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited10

The turn to descriptive studies of ethics is inspired by the sense that our ethical theorizing needs to engage ethnography, history, and literature in order to address the full complexity of ethical life. This article examines four books that describe the cultivation of virtue in diverse cultural contexts, two concerning early China and two concerning Islam in recent years. All four emphasize the significance of embodiment, and they attend to the complex ways in which choice and agency interact with the authority of tradition. In considering these books, this article examines the relations between our academic claims concerning the self and ethics, conceptual or theoretical claims made in the elite writings of traditions, and the lived experiences of the people we study. The conclusion turns to our methodological foundations for studying these topics both comparatively and constructively

Agency (philosophy · Elite · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ethnography · Order (exchange · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Virtue · Virtue ethics · Anthropology · Chinese history and philosophy · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Philosophy

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