Virtue, Luck and the Pyrrhonian Problematic

A number of contemporary philosophers endorse a Pyrrhonian theme: that one has knowledge only if one knows or understands that one’s beliefs are reliably formed. Otherwise, one is like a man who grasps gold in the dark: such a man is successful, but his success is a matter of luck, and so not creditable to him. It is argued that the skeptical problem and the problem of moral luck share a common structure and a common solution. Specifically, a virtue-theoretic approach helps us to understand important relations among luck, success and credit for success. It is argued that knowledge is an instance of success through virtue, and that, in general, success through virtue is creditable to the virtuous agent.     

论以理杀人

以理杀人是指打着正义旗号对他人强加暴力,其发生的可能条件是理具有公共性,即理的正义性是施事者与应事者双方共同认可的,并且理是应事者尚未达到的行为标准。借助理的公共性,施事者在以理杀人时常常宣称对应事者怀有善意,但由于特定目的与特定手段之间并无确定关系,施事目的不能被应事者确知,不能成为双方的公共对象,所以,所谓善意并不能为以理杀人提供正义支持,应事者只需根据自己的意愿决定是否接受施事者的目的或手段。     

On The Virtue of Judging Others

An other‐directed moral judgement is contrasted with a moral evaluation of one's own behaviour; it is argued that having a capacity to make self‐directed moral judgements is at the core of being within morality, while a lack of disposition on the part of a mature individual to judge others is indicative of the corresponding lack with regard to the self‐directed evaluations. Our readiness to evaluate the behaviour of others measures the level of our commitment to a system of morality. Consistent nonjudgementalism subverts the interpersonal nature of moral values and points to a deeper issue – an unwillingness of a nonjudgementalist to apply moral categories to her own choices.     

The Virtue of Emerson's Imitation of Christ: From William Ellery Channing to John Brown

Christians have traditionally conceived of the moral life as an imitation of Christ, whereby followers enter into fellowship with God. The American Transcendentalists can be understood as extending rather than dispensing with this legacy. For Emerson, a person cultivates virtues by imitating those she loves and admires. Ultimately, however, the virtues enable her to innovate on received models, to excel by pressing beyond exemplars. Emerson's famous line, “imitation is suicide,” is not a contradiction but a fulfillment of the imitation of Christ, understood in his terms. In his own time, John Brown was the public figure who, for Emerson, most nearly exemplified this innovative imitation of Christ. An examination of exemplarity, of this artful union of imitation and innovation in moral and spiritual formation, sheds light on how modern agents can cultivate the virtues needed to be at home in the modern world.     

Relation,Virtue, and Relational Virtue: Three Concepts of Caring

This essay breaks new ground in defending the view that contemporary care‐based ethics and early Confucian ethics share some important common ground. Luo also introduces the notion of relational virtue in an attempt to bridge a conceptual gap between relational caring ethics and agent‐based virtue ethics, and to make the connections between the ethics of care and Confucian ethics philosophically clearer and more defensible.     

John Duns Scotus: On being and cognition: Ordinatio 1.3, Edited and Translated by John van den Bercken

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

The Pursuit of Happiness: The Virtue of Consumption and the Consumption of Virtue

Abstract : In a consumer culture we seek fulfillment and happiness through the act of consumption, often conflating purchasing power with freedom. The Christian tradition, however, teaches us that our telos is nothing less than friendship with God. It is through incorporation into a community of faith that we participate in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and thereby receive a foretaste of true happiness.     

The Virtue of Dialogue,Dialogue as Virtue in Plato's Protagoras

Abstract

This article interprets Plato's Protagoras as a defense, against the claim of the sophists to possess a skill of teaching virtue, of Socrates’ claim in the Apology (38a) that the greatest good for a human being is examining oneself and others every day with regard to virtue. Attention to the often-neglected complex series of prologues as well as the dispute about method at the dialogue's center shows both the erotic and the dialogical character of Socratic virtue. Specifically, human virtue turns out to be a process of becoming as opposed to being good that can be carried out only in constant dialogue with others. In this context, the ‘science of measurement’ Socrates describes on behalf of Protagoras and the other sophists is exposed for what it is: a delusion that continues to exert its power over us today on account of the recurrent human wish to possess a skill or technique that could save us by guaranteeing the goodness and happiness of our lives.