Part of the Manifest Virtues project

1. John Lippitt & Brendan Larvor
Keeping it real:
A workshop of the
‘Manifest Virtue’
project
Introduction

2. Motivations
Philosophy as a profession and as education
 We want to do our jobs better:
o What are the qualities of a good,
professional philosopher?
o What are the qualities of a good,
professional philosophy
teacher?
o Our suspicion that some
displays of philosophical
excellence may not look so
excellent to students
 Graduate attributes—uni-speak for
excellences or virtues

3. Motivations
Keeping it real?
The presence of a patient or client:
 changes the priorities, because then
the student is not the most
important person in the room, and
grades are not the most important
outcome
 Discourages History Boys frivolity
 Challenges selfishness and other
character flaws
We are jealous!

4. Why virtues? What matters in ethical decision-making?
Three major views in contemporary ethical theory
 A standard picture of normative ethics is of three main rival
theories:
o Consequentialism (e.g. Bentham, Mill, Parfit, Singer):
concerned with maximising good consequences or outcomes
o Deontology (e.g. Kant, Korsgaard): concerned with the
morally obligatory nature of duties and rights and with the
intentions of the agent.
o Virtue Ethics (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, MacIntyre, Hursthouse):
concerned with becoming an agent in possession of the
virtues: ethically admirable qualities of character.

5. Consequentialism
Only results matter?
 An action is ethically right or wrong in light of the good or
bad consequences it produces. “There is one ultimate
moral aim: that outcomes be as good as possible” (Derek
Parfit, Reasons and Persons, 24).
 More specifically: an action (or rule of action) is right if it
maximises “the greatest good for the greatest number,”
where the good is usually understood as some form of
‘happiness’ (conceived in different ways).
 Not concerned with intentions: “He who saves a fellow
creature from drowning does what is morally right,
whether his motive be duty, or the hope of being paid for
his trouble” (J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism, 65)

6. Deontology
The importance of intentions
 Comes in many forms, but all situate moral
normativity in duties/obligations [deon]
and/or rights. Concerned with the inherent
rightness or wrongness of certain actions,
regardless of their consequences.
 Why refrain from stealing? Not because you
fear punishment or loss of reputation (a
prudential, rather than moral, reason), but
simply because stealing is wrong.

7. Deontology
The Rules?
 Similarly, why follow a professional code of
ethics? Not primarily to win public trust (also a
prudential reason) - but because of the
intrinsic value of the principles
 Recognises the possibility of doing the right
thing for the wrong reasons (cf. drowning
person example).
 Critics allege: tends to produce systems of
rules. These make ethical behavior easily:
 Reliable
 Predictable
 Manageable

8. The Limitations of Deontology and Consequentialism
(according to their critics)
 Consequentialism requires superhuman
knowledge of the consequences of
actions
 Deontology requires us to ignore
ethically bad consequences of following
the rules (is it truly wrong to lie to the
Gestapo?)

9. The Limitations of Deontology and Consequentialism
(according to their critics)
 Both deontology and consequentialism
are concerned primarily with the
rightness or wrongness of actions
 But other things matter, too:
o Desires and affects (not just ‘following
the rules’, but having the right
orientation to them)
o Character
o Integrity
o Tone

10. Virtue Ethics
The contemporary revival of an ancient wisdom
 Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics: the good life is a
life of eudaimonia or human “flourishing”
 Attained in large part through the exercise of
phronesis, “practical wisdom” and the cultivation of
the “virtues”.
 A virtue: a disposition to perform certain actions and
feel certain feelings; qualities of character
 20th and 21st century philosophers (e.g. G.E.M.
Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Alasdair MacIntyre) began
to turn back to - and develop - this Aristotelian way of
thinking about ethics
 Central focus on moral exemplars as patterns to
follow. How should I act? As a virtuous agent would
act. The importance of ‘modelling’.

11. The virtues in professional practice
Our ‘Manifest Virtue’ project and today’s workshop
 Many ethicists – not just ‘virtue
ethicists’ - claim that sound ethical
judgment requires the development of
virtuous dispositions.
 What does this mean for the education
of public-facing professionals such as
lawyers, teachers, psychotherapists
and police officers?
 What virtues do such professionals
need, and how can they be developed
in professional education and training?

12. Virtues and professional codes of ethics
Some questions arising
 Are professional codes of ethics about
setting out rules and principles to be
followed, or are they also about trying to
develop people with particular qualities of
character?
 Is it legitimate for a professional body
explicitly to say that it wants to develop
people with particular qualities of character?

13. Virtue Ethics and professional codes of ethics
Some questions arising
Hypothesis: Fostering virtues implies a different
kind of pedagogy from teaching and learning
rules and principles.
 What kind of pedagogy?
 Can all virtues be modelled? E.g. humility
 How can education in professional virtues be
assessed? Assessment must be fair,
reliable, open…