Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 16 (1):113-137 (2013)
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Abstract |
Situationist research in social psychology focuses on the situational factors that influence behavior. Doris and Harman argue that this research has powerful implications for ethics, and virtue ethics in particular. First, they claim that situationist research presents an empirical challenge to the moral psychology presumed within virtue ethics. Second, they argue that situationist research supports a theoretical challenge to virtue ethics as a foundation for ethical behavior and moral development. I offer a response from moral psychology using an interpretation of Xunzi—a Confucian virtue ethicist from the Classical period. This Confucian account serves as a foil to the situationist critique in that it uncovers many problematic ontological and normative assumptions at work in this debate regarding the prediction and explanation of behavior, psychological posits, moral development, and moral education. Xunzi’s account of virtue ethics not only responds to the situationist empirical challenge by uncovering problematic assumptions about moral psychology, but also demonstrates that it is not a separate empirical hypothesis. Further, Xunzi’s virtue ethic responds to the theoretical challenge by offering a new account of moral development and a ground for ethical norms that fully attends to situational features while upholding robust character traits.
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Keywords | Situationism Confucian Virtue ethics Moral development Xunzi Character traits Moral psychology Ritual Doris Harman |
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DOI | 10.1007/s10677-011-9312-9 |
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References found in this work BETA
Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behavior.John M. Doris - 2002 - Cambridge University Press.
Moral Philosophy Meets Social Psychology: Virtue Ethics and the Fundamental Attribution Error.Gilbert Harman - 1999 - Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 99 (1999):315-331.
View all 30 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Virtue Ethics is Empirically Adequate: A Defense of the Caps Response to Situationism.Ryan West - 2018 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 99 (S1):79-111.
Ritual Education and Moral Development: A Comparison of Xunzi and Vygotsky.Colin Lewis - 2018 - Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 17 (1):81-98.
Malleable Character: Organizational Behavior Meets Virtue Ethics and Situationism.Santiago Mejia & Joshua August Skorburg - forthcoming - Philosophical Studies.
Power, Situation, and Character: A Confucian-Inspired Response to Indirect Situationist Critiques.Seth Robertson - 2018 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21 (2):341-358.
Early Confucianism and Contemporary Moral Psychology.Richard Kim - 2016 - Philosophy Compass 11 (9):473-485.
View all 10 citations / Add more citations
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