CHARACTER AS MORAL FICTION by Mark Alfano ( 9781107538122 ) - Books & Audio Books at Pickabook.co.uk

Item Details

Title:

CHARACTER AS MORAL FICTION

By:

Mark Alfano

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£30.99

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£27.89

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10% off

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£3.10

ISBN 10:

1107538122

ISBN 13:

9781107538122

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Publisher:

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

11 February, 2015

Pages:

238

Description:

This provocative contribution to ethics and epistemology argues that virtue attributions are self-fulfilling prophecies.

Synopsis:

Everyone wants to be virtuous, but recent psychological investigations suggest that this may not be possible. Mark Alfano challenges this theory and asks, not whether character is empirically adequate, but what characters human beings could have and develop. Although psychology suggests that most people do not have robust character traits such as courage, honesty and open-mindedness, Alfano argues that we have reason to attribute these virtues to people because such attributions function as self-fulfilling prophecies - children become more studious if they are told that they are hard-working and adults become more generous if they are told that they are generous. He argues that we should think of virtue and character as social constructs: there is no such thing as virtue without social reinforcement. His original and provocative book will interest a wide range of readers in contemporary ethics, epistemology, moral psychology and empirically informed philosophy.

Illustrations:

5 tables

Publication:

Imprint:

Cambridge University Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

CHARACTER AS MORAL FICTION (HB)

CURRENT CONTROVERSIES IN VIRTUE THEORY