The interactionist approach to virtue

Amartuvshin, Bayartsetseg (2022): The interactionist approach to virtue. Dissertation, LMU München: Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and the Study of Religion

Abstract

In this dissertation, I took sides with virtue ethicists and argued that virtue is possible despite the mounting empirical evidence of how situational features impact human behavior. The main innovation I bring into the character debate is the idea that humans are creatures with various species-specific and socio-cultural constraints, and that this dimension should be integrated into theorizing about virtue. To do this, I extended and refined the concept of human limitations, to encompass not only natural disasters, as Aristotle did it, but also contain psychological and socio-cultural elements that impose limits to the way we see the social world and navigate it. Respectively, so was my argument, the idea of virtue should be refined as well, as an aspiration of creatures like us, and not those of heroes with a divine power or even half-gods. In a nutshell, I proposed to rethink three core concepts: moral failure, human limitations, and moral virtues.

Abstract

Abstract

• Item Type: Theses (Dissertation, LMU Munich)
• Keywords: Virtue ethics, moral failure, human limits, social interactions, interactionist virtue
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 170 Ethics
• Faculties: Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and the Study of Religion
• Language: English
• Date of oral examination: 13. July 2022
• 1. Referee: Sellmaier, Stephan
• Signature of the printed copy: 0001/UMC 29035