Connecting Virtues: Advances in Ethics, Epistemology, and Political Philosophy

Connecting Virtues examines the significant advances within the fast-growing field of virtue theory and shows how research has contributed to the current debates in moral philosophy, epistemology, and political philosophy.

• Includes groundbreaking chapters offering cutting-edge research on the topic of the virtues
• Provides insights into the application of the topic of virtue, such as the role of intellectual virtues, virtuous dispositions, and the value of some neglected virtues for political philosophy
• Examines the relevance of the virtues in the current debates in social epistemology, the epistemology of education, and civic education
• Features work from world-leading and internationally recognized philosophers working on the virtues today

Notes on Contributors vii

Introduction 1
MICHEL CROCE AND MARIA SILVIA VACCAREZZA

Part 1: Moral Philosophy 13

1 Utrum sit una tantum vera enumeratio virtutum moralium 15
SOPHIE GRACE CHAPPELL

2 Generosity: A Preliminary Account of a Surprisingly Neglected Virtue 23
CHRISTIAN B. MILLER

3 An Eye on Particulars with the End in Sight: An Account of Aristotelian Phronesis 51
MARIA SILVIA VACCAREZZA

4 Honesty as a Virtue 67
ALAN T. WILSON

Part 2: Epistemology 85

5 Virtue Epistemology, Enhancement, and Control 87
J. ADAM CARTER

6 Epistemic Paternalism and the Service Conception of Epistemic Authority 107
MICHEL CROCE

7 Neuromedia and the Epistemology of Education 129
DUNCAN PRITCHARD

8 Epistemic Vice and Motivation 151
ALESSANDRA TANESINI

Part 3: Political Philosophy 169

9 Senses of Humor as Political Virtues 171
PHILLIP DEEN

10 Citizens’ Political Prudence as a Democratic Virtue 187
VALERIA OTTONELLI

11 Hope as a Democratic Civic Virtue 205
NANCY E. SNOW

Index 225

MICHEL CROCE, PHD, is Early Stage Marie Curie Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and a junior researcher at the Aretai Center on Virtues. He has published a number of journal articles and book chapters in epistemology, moral philosophy, and the philosophy of education.

MARIA SILVIA VACCAREZZA, PHD, is a lecturer in ethics at the University of Genoa and a junior researcher at the Aretai Center on Virtues. She has published a number of journal articles and book chapters on several topics, including ethical naturalism, the unity of the virtues debate, moral exemplarism, and exemplarist approaches to moral education.

CONNECTING VIRTUES

Advances in Ethics, Epistemology, and Political Philosophy

Connecting Virtues examines the significant advances within the fast-growing field of virtue theory and shows how research has contributed to the current debates in moral philosophy, epistemology, and political philosophy. It includes groundbreaking chapters offering original solutions to long-standing issues, such as the plausibility of different lists of virtues, the relationship between virtues and the vices that oppose them, and the connection between moral and intellectual virtues. In addition, the volume offers insights into cutting-edge areas of application of the topic of virtue, such as the role of intellectual virtues in an age of neuromedia, virtuous dispositions related to social epistemology, and the value of some neglected virtues for political philosophy.

The book breaks down barriers between different philosophical perspectives on the study of the virtues—both to highlight the interplay and overlap among virtues pertaining to different philosophical areas, and to stress the peculiarity of specific virtues within their own fields. It is a unique and insightful collection of essays composed by some of the leading philosophers working on the topic.