Also by Michael W. Austin

Transcription

1 Virtues in Action

2 Also by Michael W. Austin BEING GOOD: Christian Virtues for Everyday Life ( with R. Douglas Geivett ) COFFEE PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE: Grounds for Debate ( with Scott Parker ) CONCEPTIONS OF PARENTHOOD: Ethics and the Family CYCLING PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE: A Philosophical Tour De Force ( with Jesús Ilundain ) FATHERHOOD PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE: The Dao of Daddy ( with Lon Nease ) FOOTBALL AND PHILOSOPHY: Going Deep RUNNING AND PHILOSOPHY: A Marathon for the Mind THE OLYMPICS AND PHILOSOPHY ( with Heather Reid ) WISE STEWARDS: Philosophical Foundations of Christian Parenting

3 Virtues in Action New Essays in Applied Virtue Ethics Edited by Michael W. Austin Eastern Kentucky University, USA

4 Selection and editorial matter Michael W. Austin 2013 Chapters Contributors 2013 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

5 For my students

6 Contents Notes on Contributors ix Introduction 1 Part I Professional Virtue 1 Virtue-Centered Approaches to Education: Prospects and Pitfalls 11 Gregory Bassham 2 The Virtues of Honorable Business Executives 23 Dan Demetriou 3 Sport as a Moral Practice: An Aristotelian Approach 39 Michael W. Austin Part II Social Virtue 4 Sex, Temperance, and Virtue 55 Stan van Hooft 5 Extend Your Benevolence: Kindness and Generosity in the Family and Beyond 70 Heidi Giebel 6 A Virtue Ethical Case for Pacifism 86 Franco V. Trivigno 7 Some Critical Reflections on Abortion and Virtue Theory 102 Matthew Flannagan Part III Environmental Virtue 8 Environmental Degradation, Environmental Justice, and the Compassionate Agent 119 Chris Frakes 9 Humility and Environmental Virtue Ethics 132 Matthew Pianalto vii

7 viii Contents Part IV Intellectual Virtue 10 Hope as an Intellectual Virtue 153 Nancy E. Snow 11 Virtue Ethics and Moral Failure: Lessons from Neuroscientific Moral Psychology 171 Lisa Tessman 12 Getting Our Minds Out of the Gutter: Fallacies that Foul Our Discourse (and Virtues that Clean it Up) 190 Robert K. Garcia and Nathan L. King Bibliography 207 Index 221

8 Notes on Contributors Michael W. Austin is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky. His research interests include ethics, philosophy of the family, philosophy of sport, and philosophy of religion. He has published articles related to these issues in The Journal of Value Inquiry, Philosophy and Theology, Journal of Applied Philosophy, Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, and Philosophia Christi. He has written or edited nine books, including Conceptions of Parenthood (2007), The Olympics and Philosophy, with Heather Reid (2012), and Being Good: Christian Virtues for Everyday Life, with R. Douglas Geivett (2012). His blog, Ethics for Everyone, can be found at the Psychology Today website: psychologytoday.com/blog/ethics-everyone. He is currently working on a book about the virtue of humility. Gregory Bassham is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at King s College (Pa.). He is the author or editor of seven books, including (most recently) The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy (2010), The Hobbit and Philosophy (2012), and Critical Thinking: A Student s Introduction (5th ed., 2013). He has published widely on educational issues. Dan Demetriou is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota, Morris. His writes and teaches on topics in metaethics, applied ethics, professional ethics, and philosophy of law. He is currently writing a book on honor ethics, and he founded and administers honorethics.org, an academic blog devoted to the cross-disciplinary study of honor. Matthew Flannagan is a theologian based in Auckland, New Zealand. His research interests include ethics and philosophy of religion. He has published on these subjects in journals such as Philo, Philosophia Christi, Colloquium, and The Journal of Medicine and Ethics. He is currently co-writing Did God Command Genocide? with Paul Copan, to be published by Baker Academic. Chris Frakes is an independent scholar and writer. Her research interests include ethics, feminist philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and environmental philosophy. Her publications include, When Strangers Call: A Consideration of Care, Justice and Compassion Hypatia vol. 25 no. 1 (Winter 2010) and Do the Compassionate Flourish?: Overcoming ix

9 x Notes on Contributors Anguish and the Impulse to Violence Journal of Buddhist Ethics vol. 14 (2007). Dr. Frakes was a participating scholar in the National Endowment of the Humanities summer institute, A Fierce Green Fire at 100: Aldo Leopold and the Roots of Environmental Ethics in Robert K. Garcia is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. His areas of interest include metaphysics, philosophy of religion, environmental ethics, and food ethics. He has co-edited, with Nathan L. King, Is Goodness without God Good Enough? (2008). This volume includes a debate between William Lane Craig and Paul Kurtz concerning whether or not there is a relationship between God and ethics, as well as contributions from a number of prominent scholars representing diverse views on this topic. Heidi Giebel is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her publications include articles in International Philosophical Quarterly, Review Journal of Political Philosophy, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, and Teaching Philosophy. Heidi s primary research and teaching interests are in theoretical and applied ethics, moral education, and medieval philosophy. She is currently working on an interdisciplinary (philosophy and psychology) project regarding moral education in undergraduate ethics courses and on a few more papers in the area of comparative (Confucian and Aristotelian- Thomistic) ethics. Nathan L. King is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Whitworth University. His research interests include epistemology and the philosophy of religion. He has published articles in such journals as Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophy Compass, and The Journal of Philosophical Research. Along with Robert K. Garcia, he is co-editor of Is Goodness without God Good Enough? (2008). Matthew Pianalto is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Eastern Kentucky University, where he teaches courses in philosophy, humanities, applied ethics, and animal studies. He has published articles on various topics in ethics, which have appeared in journals including Inquiry, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, The Journal of Applied Philosophy, The Journal of Value Inquiry, Philosophical Investigations, and Philosophia, as well as in the magazine Philosophy Now. A recent essay of his on moral courage was awarded the Robert Papazian Annual Essay Prize on Themes from Ethics and Political Philosophy. He is currently writing about patience and its relationship to other virtues.

10 Notes on Contributors xi Nancy E. Snow is Professor of Philosophy with research interests in moral psychology and virtue ethics. She is currently working on two books one on hope and one on virtue ethics and virtue epistemology as well as invited papers on virtue ethics. She is editing an anthology for Oxford University Press entitled Cultivating Virtue: Multiple Perspectives, and co-editing, with her colleague Dr. Franco V. Trivigno, an anthology for Routledge Press entitled The Philosophy and Psychology of Virtue: An Empirical Approach to Character and Happiness. She is the Associate Editor for Ethics and Philosophy of The Journal of Moral Education. Lisa Tessman is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. Her areas of research and teaching include ethics (especially virtue ethics and feminist ethics), feminist philosophy, critical race theory and social and political philosophy. Her publications include Feminist Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy: Theorizing the Non-Ideal (2009), Burdened Virtues: Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles (2005 ), Jewish Locations: Traversing Racialized Landscapes ( co-edited with Bat-Ami Bar On, 2001), and a variety of book chapters and journal articles. Franco V. Trivigno is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His primary research interests are in ancient philosophy and neo-aristotelian virtue ethics. He is currently engaged in two research projects: the first concerns the philosophical significance of Plato s dramatic portrayal of virtue and the other on the practical applicability of Aristotle s core virtue ethical notions. He has published articles related to these issues in Journal of the History of Philosophy, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, and Public Affairs Quarterly. In addition, he is also co-editing (with Nancy Snow) a volume entitled The Philosophy and Psychology of Character and Happiness. Stan van Hooft is Professor of Philosophy at Deakin University in Australia. He is the author of Caring: An Essay in the Philosophy of Ethics (1995) and numerous journal articles on moral philosophy, bioethics, business ethics, and on the nature of health and disease. He is the co-author of Facts and Values: An Introduction to Critical Thinking for Nurses (1995) and Questioning Cosmopolitanism (2010). Other books include Life, Death, and Subjectivity: Moral Sources for Bioethics (2004), Caring about Health (2006), Understanding Virtue Ethics (2006), Cosmopolitanism: A Philosophy for Global Ethics (2009, shortlisted for the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Research in Ethics in 2010), and Hope (2011).