You Are Only as Good as You Are Behind Closed Doors: The Stability of Virtuous Dispositions

Philosophy Documentation Center 2:1-19 (2020)
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Abstract

Virtues are standardly characterized as stable dispositions. A stable disposition implies that the virtuous actor must be disposed to act well in any domain required of them. For example, a politician is not virtuous if s/he is friendly in debate with an opponent, but hostile at home with a partner or children. Some recent virtue theoretic accounts focus on specific domains in which virtues can be exercised. I call these domain-variant accounts of virtue. This paper examines two such accounts: Randall Curren and Charles Dorn’s (2018) discussion of virtue in the civic sphere, and Michael Brady’s (2018) account of virtues of vulnerability. I argue that being consistent with the standard characterization of virtue requires generalizing beyond a domain. I suggest four actions the authors could take to preserve their accounts while remaining consistent with the standard characterization. I also discuss how virtue education could be enhanced by domain-variant accounts.

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original Goldstein, Rena Beatrice (2020) "You Are Only as Good as You Are Behind Closed Doors". Precollege Philosophy and Public Practice 2():88-106

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References found in this work

Intelligent Virtue.Julia Annas - 2011 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Knowledge in Perspective: Selected Essays in Epistemology.Ernest Sosa - 1991 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Good and Evil.Peter Geach - 1956 - Analysis 17 (2):33 - 42.
Practical intelligence and the virtues.Daniel C. Russell - 2009 - New York: Oxford University Press.

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