Chapter 5. Virtues and vices and parts and wholes
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George Heffernan
Abstract
This paper addresses a perennial controversy in virtue ethics. In Plato’s dialogue, Protagoras, Socrates argues that virtue is knowledge but doubts whether it can be taught, whereas Protagoras denies that virtue is knowledge but affirms that it can be taught. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that one cannot have ethical virtue without dianoetical virtue or vice versa. In his Third Logical Investigation, Husserl distinguishes between independent parts and non-independent parts of wholes. In the first application of the phenomenological logic of parts and wholes to the relationship between ethical virtue and dianoetical virtue, this paper corroborates Aristotle’s intuition about the connection between excellence of character and excellence of mind, namely, that one cannot possess the one without the other or vice versa.
Abstract
This paper addresses a perennial controversy in virtue ethics. In Plato’s dialogue, Protagoras, Socrates argues that virtue is knowledge but doubts whether it can be taught, whereas Protagoras denies that virtue is knowledge but affirms that it can be taught. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that one cannot have ethical virtue without dianoetical virtue or vice versa. In his Third Logical Investigation, Husserl distinguishes between independent parts and non-independent parts of wholes. In the first application of the phenomenological logic of parts and wholes to the relationship between ethical virtue and dianoetical virtue, this paper corroborates Aristotle’s intuition about the connection between excellence of character and excellence of mind, namely, that one cannot possess the one without the other or vice versa.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Foreword xi
- Introduction 1
-
Section 1. Philosophies and controversies
- Chapter 1. Leibniz beyond Leibniz 7
- Chapter 2. Locke’s and Leibniz’s virtual debate over Of our knowledge of the existence of God 29
- Chapter 3. Locke and Leibniz on matter and solidity 49
- Chapter 4. How should we think about a trans-cultural hermeneutics? 69
- Chapter 5. Virtues and vices and parts and wholes 85
- Chapter 6. Trajectories and challenges of translating traditional Chinese medicine 105
-
Section 2. Dialogue and controversies
- Chapter 7. Dialogue in philosophical practices 127
- Chapter 8. The absence of God 145
- Chapter 9. Listening to the other 161
- Chapter 10. Controversies on hypercomplexity and on education in the hypertechnological era 179
- Chapter 11. The beleaguered filibuster of the US Senate 201
- Chapter 12. The ruins of the political 217
- Chapter 13. Coordination games and disagreement 241
- Chapter 14. How to solve controversies in scenarios of legal pluralism 261
- Chapter 15. The “water memory affair” 279
- About the contributors 297
- Subject index 303
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Foreword xi
- Introduction 1
-
Section 1. Philosophies and controversies
- Chapter 1. Leibniz beyond Leibniz 7
- Chapter 2. Locke’s and Leibniz’s virtual debate over Of our knowledge of the existence of God 29
- Chapter 3. Locke and Leibniz on matter and solidity 49
- Chapter 4. How should we think about a trans-cultural hermeneutics? 69
- Chapter 5. Virtues and vices and parts and wholes 85
- Chapter 6. Trajectories and challenges of translating traditional Chinese medicine 105
-
Section 2. Dialogue and controversies
- Chapter 7. Dialogue in philosophical practices 127
- Chapter 8. The absence of God 145
- Chapter 9. Listening to the other 161
- Chapter 10. Controversies on hypercomplexity and on education in the hypertechnological era 179
- Chapter 11. The beleaguered filibuster of the US Senate 201
- Chapter 12. The ruins of the political 217
- Chapter 13. Coordination games and disagreement 241
- Chapter 14. How to solve controversies in scenarios of legal pluralism 261
- Chapter 15. The “water memory affair” 279
- About the contributors 297
- Subject index 303
