A New Form of Agent-Based Virtue Ethics
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 14 (3):259-272 (2011)
| Abstract | In Morals From Motives, Michael Slote defends an agent-based theory of right action according to which right acts are those that express virtuous motives like benevolence or care. Critics have claimed that Slote’s view— and agent-based views more generally— cannot account for several basic tenets of commonsense morality. In particular, the critics maintain that agent-based theories: (i) violate the deontic axiom that ought implies can , (ii) cannot allow for a person’s doing the right thing for the wrong reason, and (iii) do not yield clear verdicts in a number of cases involving conflicting motives and motivational over-determination . In this paper I develop a new agent-based theory of right action designed to avoid the problems presented for Slote’s view. This view makes morally right action a matter of expressing an optimal balance of virtue over vice and commands agents in each situation to improve their degree of excellence to the greatest extent possible | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,705 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesZ. Y. L. van (2011). Right Action and the Non-Virtuous Agent. Journal of Applied Philosophy 28 (1):80-92.
Michael A. Slote (2001). Morals From Motives. Oxford University Press.
Michael Slote (1999). Moral Theories and Virtue Ethics. The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 1:51-57.
Sherman (2006). Wisdom and Action Guidance in the Agent-Based Virtue Ethics of Aristotle. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 80 (4):481-506.
Damian Cox (2006). Agent-Based Theories of Right Action. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 9 (5):505 - 515.
Daniel Jacobson (2002). An Unsolved Problem for Slote's Agent-Based Virtue Ethics. Philosophical Studies 111 (1):53 - 67.
Michael S. Brady (2004). Against Agent-Based Virtue Ethics. Philosophical Papers 33 (1):1-10.
Liezl van Zyl (2011). Rightness and Goodness in Agent-Based Virtue Ethics. Journal of Philosophical Research 36:103-114.
Michelle Ciurria (2012). A New Mixed View of Virtue Ethics, Based on Daniel Doviak's New Virtue Calculus. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 15 (2):259-269.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2010-07-26Total downloads80 ( #9,742 of 549,533 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #37,418 of 549,533 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
