Notebook per
Is Character Necessary for Moral Behavior?
Citation (APA): Knobel, A. (2016). Is Character Necessary for Moral Behavior? [Kindle Android version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com
Parte introduttiva
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 2
Is Character Necessary for Moral Behavior? By Angela Knobel
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 11
“character” I mean the possession of one or more virtues,
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 12
what does it mean to possess a virtue?
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 12
ethical tradition associated with Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas,
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 13
to have a deeply ingrained disposition,
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recognize what is virtuous, but to do it promptly, easily, and without internal struggle.
Nota - Posizione 14
x AVERE UNA VIRTÙ
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 16
is the virtue of courage necessary for courageous actions?
Nota - Posizione 16
DOMANDA RIFORMULATA
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people who aren’t particularly courageous sometimes do courageous things,
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 20
Good Character and Readiness of Action
Nota - Posizione 21
T
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Suppose you and a friend witness a terrible accident: a vehicle loses control, crashes into a tree, and begins to burn with the driver trapped inside. Let’s assume that it’s possible to save the driver, that going to his aid would be courageous, not reckless or foolhardy. Your friend, who is courageous, immediately springs into action. Before other bystanders have fully registered what has happened, he has rushed to the vehicle, found a means of breaking the window, and is in the process of dragging the unconscious driver to safety. If you are not particularly courageous yourself, it’s unlikely that you will react as your friend does. For one thing, you probably won’t react as quickly or decisively, even if you do want to help. You might, for instance, have a hard time deciding what to do and an even harder time doing it. In other words, you will have to wrestle with your fear of being burned or otherwise injured— even if you end up doing the courageous thing.
Nota - Posizione 26
x ES DI IMMEDIATEZZA
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 28
difference between doing a brave thing and being a brave person.
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do brave things without any internal struggle
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brave people seem even to want to do brave things;
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 36
A brave person acts more quickly— with less of an interior struggle
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 36
And this clearly matters,
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 37
But what if there are no burning vehicles? Is good character still important
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It might seem that it isn’t.
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 40
Good Character and Moral Perception
Nota - Posizione 40
T
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 44
Those who witness the accident will not fail to notice that someone needs saving,
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 45
But things are not always so obvious.
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 45
less dramatic examples
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 45
Peter, seeing that the walks are icy and worried that his elderly neighbor might slip and fall, salts his neighbor’s walk as well as his own. Paul, seeing how much cleaning up there is to do after a friend’s party, stays behind to help wash the dishes.
Nota - Posizione 47
x ESEMPI DI BENE NASCOSTO
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 47
these are good things to do. But few of us ever actually do them.
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 48
Why not?
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helping a friend clean up hardly ever crosses our minds.
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 49
if asked, we would all probably say that we care
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if an elderly neighbor asked us directly for assistance, we’d most likely oblige.
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why does the thought of doing them not occur to us more often?
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answer has to do with moral character.
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 54
When we wake up to find our sidewalk coated in ice, our first thought is likely of the inconvenience this poses to ourselves— to our own risk of injury and our own well-being. It’s not that we consciously disregard the well-being of our neighbor but, rather, that we don’t habitually think of our neighbor’s well-being much at all.
Nota - Posizione 56
x COME PENSA IL NN VORTUOSO
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 57
Someone who possesses the virtue of kindness, by contrast, perceives exactly the same situation in a different way.
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 61
character really is a necessary pre-condition for moral behavior.
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 61
Unless we possess virtues, we won’t recognize
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 66
Discussion Summary
Nota - Posizione 66
T
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 73
relationship between feelings and morality.
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 74
social norms or duty suffice to produce the desired outcomes.
Nota - Posizione 75
OPINIONE DIFFUSA
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 76
For Aristotle, the feelings relevant to moral character are themselves informed by and amenable to reason.
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So someone whose actions are consistently guided by their belief about what is right simply will come to have the relevant feelings. I think Aristotle is mostly correct about this.
Nota - Posizione 77
x ABITUDINE IN ARISTO
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social norms, by themselves,
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SONO SUFFICIENTI? NO
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If I desire social approval and I know that society expects a certain kind of behavior, then I will have reason to do it— when someone is watching. Only when I see the relevant actions as desirable for their own sake will I have a reliable reason to do them no matter what.
Nota - Posizione 80
x FALLIMENTO DELLA NORMA SOCIALE
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 81
what it means to “have” a virtue
Nota - Posizione 81
T
Evidenzia (giallo) - Posizione 82
If I have to know what is virtuous in order to do it, isn’t virtue circular?
Nota - Posizione 82
CIRCOLARITÀ
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“phronimos”
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Even if we are not ourselves virtuous, we can still recognize people who seem to have “gotten it right,” and we can imitate them. As we make progress in modeling ourselves after these exemplars, we grow in virtue.
Nota - Posizione 85
x L USCITA DI SICUREZZA DI ARIST.: IL PRONIMOS
