Abstract

The claim that virtue requires self-knowledge may seem banal, but it has been challenged by recent claims that certain virtues, such as modesty, require ignorance of self and that self-deceived persons are both happier and nicer. My argument is grounded in a broadly Aristotelian conception of virtue, where full moral virtue includes both the virtues of character, such as temperance, generosity, and courage, and the intellectual virtue of practical wisdom. I argue that self-knowledge is necessary for practical wisdom and practical wisdom is necessary for virtue; hence, self-knowledge is necessary for virtue. However, self-knowledge is not sufficient for virtue, as a person could lack other capacities or insights that would enable her to act virtuously. She may, for example, fully understand her own character, yet be too weak to do the right thing, or she could know that she is a con artist and feel proud of this fact.