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Anger and the virtues: a critical study in virtue individuation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Ryan West
Ryan West*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
*
* Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Aristotle and others suggest that a single virtue – ‘good temper’ – pertains specifically to anger. I argue that if good temper is a single virtue, it is constituted by aspects of a combination of other virtues. I present three categories of anger-relevant virtues – those that (potentially) dispose one to anger; those that delay, mitigate, and qualify anger; and those required for effortful anger control – and show how virtues in each category make distinct contributions to good temper. In addition to clarifying the relationship between anger and the virtues, my analysis has theoretical implications for virtue individuation more generally, and practical implications for character cultivation.

Keywords

Angergood tempervirtuesvirtue ethicsvirtue individuationcharactermoral psychology
Type
Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 46 , Issue 6 , December 2016 , pp. 877 - 897
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2016

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