Journal
Topoi
Topoi's main assumption is that philosophy is a lively, provocative, delightful activity, which constantly challenges our received views, relentlessly questions our inherited habits,...
We are inviting submissions of papers for a Special Issue of the journal Topoi, entitled Virtues, Wisdom, and Expertise. The special issue aims to advance the research on virtue cultivation, wisdom, and expertise from a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspective. Papers, which should not exceed a maximum of 9000 words, should be written in English, fit for double blind review, and must be submitted through the online submission system Editorial Manager, by choosing the category “SI Virtues, Wisdom, and Expertise (Vaccarezza/Croce)” from the menu “Article Type”. Please read the Submission Guidelines before submitting your paper.
Special issue article publications often bring higher citations and visibility than regular papers and attract more relevant readership due to its scope. Topoi is indexed in the Web of Science, currently with a 2022 IF of 1,4 and CiteScore of 2,8 and its editorial team is led by the Editor in Chief Prof. Fabio Paglieri and Associate Editor Prof. Marcin Lewinski.
In Aristotelian virtue ethics, it is standardly taken that cultivating a virtuous character is the prime way to leading an ethical life. The path to becoming virtuous typically involves two main aspects: (i) the development of individual virtues via cultivating apt emotional responses to specific situations; and (ii) the cultivation of phronesis (practical wisdom), an intellectual meta-virtue that settles conflicts between virtues and deliberates upon the actions to be taken. As interest in this research topic increases, a number of different and innovative interpretations of virtues and phronesis are being advanced within virtue ethics, character education, and moral psychology. Most recent proposals vindicate a genuine Aristotelian spirit while at the same time being grounded in well-established psychological frameworks and measurements (Darnell et al. 2019; Kristjánsson et al. 2021). While a line of interpretation suggests that virtues and phronesis can be successfully reinterpreted in light of personality theories such as social-cognitive theories (Lapsley 2016) and trait theories (Jayawickreme et al., 2017; Snow et al. 2021), others conceive the virtuous and/or the wise according to a skill account of the virtues (Stichter 2007; Annas 2011) or an expertise model of phronesis (De Caro et al., 2018, 2020, 2021; Tsai 2022). However, within this debate there still is ample room for skepticism about the psychological credibility of the virtues as stable dispositions or, more recently, about the Aristotelian idea that phronesis is crucial to the development of virtuous habits, as testified by the so-called “eliminativists” challenges (Lapsley 2021; Miller 2021).
The aim of this special issue is to advance the research on the topics of virtue cultivation, wisdom, and expertise from a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspective. We welcome contributions that defend one of the aforementioned approaches, address the eliminativist challenges, explore the link between virtuousness, skills, and expertise, or engage in the discussion about how to lead a virtuous life, broadly construed. Empirically informed contributions as well as contributions that foster a discussion between any of the relevant disciplines (e.g., virtue ethics, moral psychology, character education, moral epistemology, expertise theory) are particularly welcome.
Possible specific topics include (but are not limited to):
The functions and limits of phronesis qua meta-virtue
The relations between phronesis and other virtues
Rival empirically informed accounts of phronesis
Aristotelian and non-Aristotelian accounts of virtue and flourishing
Virtues and phronesis in applied ethics
The eliminativist challenges
The psychology of virtues, whole traits, and skills
Competing accounts of wisdom (with particular focus on expertise accounts)
The nature and limits of moral expertise
The relationships between expertise, skills, and virtues
The epistemic components of practical and moral expertise
Invited Contributors
Monika Ardelt (University of Florida)
John Hacker-Wright (University of Guelph)
Eranda Jayawickreme (Wake Forest University)
John Hacker-Wright (University of Guelph)
Kristjan Kristjansson (University of Birmingham)
Blaine Fowers (University of Miami)
Howard C. Nusbaum (University of Chicago)
Matt Stichter (Washington State University)
Jason Swartwood (Saint Paul College)
Cheng-hung Tsai (Academia Sinica, Taiwan)
For any questions, please contact one of the Guest Editors:
-
Maria Silvia Vaccarezza
Maria Silvia Vaccarezza is Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Genova and secretary of Aretai – Center on Virtues. Her research interests include: Iris Murdoch; Aristotle’s ethics; phronesis; the unity of the virtues; moral exemplarity and admiration; virtue, duty, and supererogation; media ethics; philosophy of emotions; character education. She has recently edited Practical Wisdom: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives, Routledge, New York 2021 (with M. De Caro), mariasilvia.vaccarezza@unige.it -
Michel Croce
Michel Croce is Assistant Professor in the Department of Antiquities, History, and Philosophy at the University of Genoa. His research interests lie at the intersection of ethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of education. He has written on such topics as cognitive and moral expertise, exemplars in education, virtues and character development, trust in epistemic authority, testimony, epistemic paternalism, and fake news. michel.croce@unige.it
Showing 1-19 of 19 articles
