Virtues in Action New Essays in Applied Virtue Ethics

In recent decades, many philosophers have considered the strengths and weaknesses of a virtue-centered approach to moral theory. Much less attention has been given to how such an approach bears on issues in applied ethics. The essays in this volume apply a virtue-centered perspective to a variety of contemporary moral issues, and in so doing offer a fresh and illuminating perspective. Some of the essays focus on a particular virtue and its application to one or more realms of applied ethics, such as temperance and sex or humility and environmental ethics. Other chapters focus on an issue in applied ethics and bring several virtues into a discussion of that issue or realm of life, such as sport, education, and business. Finally, several of the chapters engage relevant psychological research as well as current neuroscience, which enhances the strength of the philosophical arguments.

Notes on Contributors Introduction PART I: PROFESSIONAL VIRTUE 1. Virtue-Centered Approaches to Education: Prospects and Pitfalls; Gregory Bassham 2. The Virtues of Honorable Business Executives; Dan Demetriou 3. Sport as a Moral Practice: An Aristotelian Approach; Michael W. Austin PART II: SOCIAL VIRTUE 4. Sex, Temperance, and Virtue; Stan van Hooft 5. Extend Your Benevolence: Kindness and Generosity in the Family and Beyond; Heidi Giebel 6. A Virtue Ethical Case for Pacifism; Franco V. Trivigno 7. Some Critical Reflections on Abortion and Virtue Theory; Matthew Flannagan PART III: ENVIRONMENTAL VIRTUE 8. Environmental Degradation, Environmental Justice, and the Compassionate Agent; Chris Frakes 9. Humility and Environmental Virtue Ethics; Matthew Pianalto PART IV: INTELLECTUAL VIRTUE 10. Hope as an Intellectual Virtue; Nancy E. Snow 11. Virtue Ethics and Moral Failure: Lessons from Neuroscientific Moral Psychology; Lisa Tessman 12. Getting Our Minds Out of the Gutter: Fallacies that Foul Our Discourse (and Virtues that Clean it Up); Robert K. Garcia and Nathan L. King Bibliography Index

Gregory Bassham, Philosophy Department at King's College, Pennsylvania, USA Dan Demetriou, University of Minnesota, Morris, USA Matthew Flannagan is a Theologian based in Auckland, New Zealand Chris Frakes is an independent scholar and writer, USA Robert K. Garcia, Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, USA Heidi Giebel, University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Nathan L. King, Whitworth University, USA Matthew Pianalto, Eastern Kentucky University, USA Nancy E. Snow, Marquette University, USA Lisa Tessman, Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York, USA Franco V. Trivigno, Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA Stan van Hooft, Deakin University in Australia