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Comments on Stichter’s The Skillfulness of Virtue

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Notes

  1. For monograph-length see, among others, Alfano (2013), Doris (1998), Flanagan (1993), Miller (2013), Russell (2009), Snow (2009), Upton (2009), Zagzebski (2017). It’s also worth noting that, of these, only Alfano (2013) and Zagzebski (2017) address both moral and epistemic virtue, as Stichter does.

  2. See, for example, https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-utah-gun-training-for-teachers-20190707-story.html.

  3. One might object that, in certain traditions, such as Christian philosophy, curiosity is seen as a vice. This is certainly true of Augustine and Aquinas, but even they recognized a cognate virtue of love of knowledge. Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for raising this point.

  4. For a related concern about the damage people may sustain by embodying virtues in deeply morally flawed communities, see Tessman (2006).

  5. See https://www.businessinsider.nl/theranos-founder-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-life-story-bio-2018-4?international=true&r=US for context.

  6. One might object that there is no satisficing when it comes to virtue, but that would be a controversial position according to which there is precisely one set of moral and epistemic traits that everyone ought to cultivate. Stichter allows for more diversity, which seems both more modest and more plausible. Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for raising this point.

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  1. Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

    Mark Alfano

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Alfano, M. Comments on Stichter’s The Skillfulness of Virtue. Ethic Theory Moral Prac 24, 549–554 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-020-10109-9

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