Moral Virtues Require Intellectual Virtues: A Case for Intellectual Virtues in Ethics

• Author / Creator

  Contreiras, Andrew

• Moral virtues need intellectual virtues. I support this claims by (1) proposing a response in terms of intellectual virtues and other psychological factors to situationalist critiques against moral virtue, (2) arguing that intellectual virtues must assess moral contexts for proper manifestation of moral virtue, and (3) showing that interrelations between moral and intellectual virtues deem them inextricable in moral behavior. These arguments--(1), (2), and (3), respectively—are designed to show the function, the prescriptive advantage and the descriptive accuracy of intellectual virtues in virtue theory. Further, I argue that supplementing virtue theory with intellectual virtues yields more subtle characterological assessments of agents in moral action. Finally, I demonstrate the function of intellectual virtues to fill the theoretical gap revealed by the problem of moral luck.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Ethics
  • Virtue theory
  • Situationalism
  • Epistemology

• Graduation date

  Fall 2010

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3389Z

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.