Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T04:17:37.152Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Kantian perfectionism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2011

Lawrence Jost
Affiliation:
University of Cincinnati
Julian Wuerth
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
Get access

Summary

KANT AND VIRTUE ETHICS

“Virtue ethics” as it is currently understood was not on Kant's docket, nor was Aristotle, with whom contemporary virtue ethics is most closely associated, a major figure in Kant's historiography of moral philosophy. Nevertheless, Kant clearly rejected several ancient ideas that have been taken up in contemporary virtue ethics, and did have one criticism of Aristotle that he made on several occasions. First, Kant began his Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals by firmly rejecting any idea that we could characterize our moral obligations through several independent virtues such as “courage, resolution, and perseverance in one's plans,” since while these “are undoubtedly good and desirable for many purposes … they can also be extremely evil and harmful if the will which is to make use of these gifts of nature … is not good” (G, 4:393), and a good will, as the Groundwork argues, requires a single fundamental principle of morality to which it freely chooses to conform, in light of which it can decide when and how to use such “virtues” as courage or perseverance. But this was not meant as a criticism of Aristotle; rather, the doctrine of the independence of the virtues was prephilosophical Greek wisdom, which was criticized by Plato through Socrates' doctrine of the “unity of virtue” and by Aristotle in his view that the use of such virtues should be guided by the pursuit of the highest good for human beings.

Type
Chapter
Information
Perfecting Virtue
New Essays on Kantian Ethics and Virtue Ethics
, pp. 194 - 214
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×