The price of virtue

  • Anne Margaret Baxley

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Aristotle famously held that there is a crucial difference between the person who merely acts rightly and the person who is wholehearted in what she does. He captures this contrast by insisting on a distinction between continence and full virtue. One way of accounting for the important difference here is to suppose that, for the genuinely virtuous person, the requirements of virtue "silence" competing reasons for action. I argue that the silencing interpretation is not compelling. As Aristotle rightly saw, virtue can have a cost, and a mark of the wise person is that she recognizes it.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)403-423
Number of pages21
JournalPacific Philosophical Quarterly
Volume88
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007

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