Vice Versa

I examine the question whether people can be thought of as possessing ‘robust character traits’ such as virtues and vices, in the light of empirical evidence suggesting otherwise. Philosophers persuaded by this evidence - ‘situationists’ - have charged Aristotelian virtue ethics with empirical inadequacy. Moreover, they think the everyday ‘folk psychological’ understanding of character is equally mistaken. In my dissertation, I develop a response to situationists by arguing that, in making the case for character skepticism, they overlook the possibility that vices might be prevalent in the population, and that such traits could be the psychological cause of morally relevant behaviour. Thus, I show that character skepticism is not warranted because the possibility of character pessimism is also available, and less radically revisionary

Dissertation: http://hdl.handle.net/11370/0ae49b0d-dce4-4b0b-bb17-3ed4e795bdbb