Practical intelligence and the virtues

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Title:

Practical intelligence and the virtues

Author:

Russell, Daniel C.

ISBN:

9780199565795

Personal Author:

Russell, Daniel C.

Publication Information:

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

Physical Description:

xvii, 439 p. ; 25 cm.

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 -- 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.

Subject Term:

Virtue.

Ethics.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025452273	179.9 R962P 2009	1	Searching... Unknown

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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 cognitive and deliberative skills involved in the virtues. If right action is defined in terms of acting generously or kindly, then these virtues must involve skills for determining what the kind or generous thing to do would be on a given occasion. Likewise, Russell argues that understanding virtuous action as the intelligent pursuit of virtuous goals yields a promising picture of the psychology of virtue. This book develops an Aristotelian account of the virtue of practical intelligence or 'phronesis'--an excellence of deliberating and making choices--which Russell argues is a necessary part of every virtue. This emphasis on the roots of the virtues in the practical intellect contrasts with ambivalence about the practical intellect in much recent work on the virtues--a trend Russell argues is ultimately perilous for virtue theory. This book also takes a penetrating look at issues like the unity of the virtues, responsibility for character, and that elusive figure, 'the virtuous person'. Written in a clear and careful manner, Practical Intelligence and the Virtues will appeal to philosophers and students alike in moral philosophy and moral psychology.