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Examples of Useful Capacities

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Virtue Ethics and Human Enhancement

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Ethics ((BRIEFSETHIC))

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Abstract

This chapter will provide concrete examples of a number of moral and epistemic virtues and show how they can help people in general to live better lives in the modern society. By ‘better’ it should be noted that I mean both in the sense they increase their own well-being and contribute to a broader improvement of society. The account provided here draws on scientific research into the ways in which people assimilate information and form their beliefs (as explained and exemplified in Chap. 3), as well as virtue theory. Further to this, the field of ‘Virtue Epistemology’ is introduced. While it is a relatively young field much interesting and, for the purposes here, highly applicable research has already been carried out.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For good accounts of other useful capacities such as fidelity and fairness see for example J. Savulescu and I. Hansson (2010), Moral Transhumanism, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 0: 1–14, 2010. J. Savuelscu and A. Sandberg. (2008). Neuroenhancement of love and marriage: the chemicals between us. Neuroethics 1: 31–44.

  2. 2.

    http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalRisks_Report_2012.pdf

  3. 3.

    See Chaps. 1 and 4.

  4. 4.

    See Book 9.2 of the NE, especially the last sentence.

  5. 5.

    See for example Book 9.2 of the NE.

  6. 6.

    See Chap. 4.

  7. 7.

    Irwin’s translation of andreia is bravery but in this introduction I have chosen to use the word courage instead (as does e.g. Roger Crisp as well as Broadie & Rowe) to avoid getting stuck in the battle metaphors.

  8. 8.

    See e.g. Pears for a very interesting discussion on this. Pears D. (1980). Courage as a Mean. In, Essays On Aristotle’s Ethics, ed. A. O. Rorty, 1980, University of California Press, 171–188.

  9. 9.

    I have previously stated that the virtues are dispositions for actions, not for feelings, consequently what I mean here is “a feeling that will issue in the right action”.

  10. 10.

    Pakaluk M. (2005). Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Cambridge University Press. p. 163.

  11. 11.

    /NE1116a18/.

  12. 12.

    See e.g. Broadie, p 24–25 where she refers to Book 3.8, 1116a30-b2 and 3.6, 1115b4 of the NE in: Aristotle (2002). The Nicomachean Ethics, (translation, introduction and commentary by S. Broadie and C. Rowe), Oxford University Press.

  13. 13.

    See Pears for the example about the prisoner on death row. Pears D. (1980). Courage as a Mean. In, Essays On Aristotle’s Ethics, ed. A O. Rorty, 1980, University of California Press, 171–188.

  14. 14.

    /NE1104b5-6/.

  15. 15.

    Pakaluk M. (2005). Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Cambridge University Press, p. 166.

  16. 16.

    See Book 3 of the NE.

  17. 17.

    Note that temperance is not the same as ‘prudence’.

  18. 18.

    Naturally, the agents I have in mind do not have the same taste as I do.

  19. 19.

    See e.g. Book 2.7 of the NE, especially 1108a31-23, 4.9, 1128b10-12 and 15–21.

  20. 20.

    See e.g. Book 3.10 of the NE, especially 1117b24-33/.

  21. 21.

    /NE1118a2-7/.

  22. 22.

    /NE1119b26-27/.

  23. 23.

    /NE1120a9-12/.

  24. 24.

    /NE1120a13-16/.

  25. 25.

    Examples of wrong ways to earn money would be pimping, shylocking, dicing or being a petty-thief.

  26. 26.

    Note that there can be people such that they suffer both the opposing vices at the same time./NE1121b21-31/.

  27. 27.

    Note that the virtue of open-handedness also deals with the way the agent spend on herself.

  28. 28.

    Burnyeat M. F. (1980). Aristotle on Learning to be Good. In, Essays On Aristotle’s Ethics, ed. A O. Rorty, 1980, University of California Press, p. 71.

  29. 29.

    /NE1179b20-1180a/.

  30. 30.

    See Dworkin ‘Laws & Empire’ for a similar analogy. Dworkin R. (1986), Law’s Empire, Belknap Press.

  31. 31.

    For a discussion see Book 6.13 of the Nicomachean Ethics.

  32. 32.

    See, for example, Axtell (ed.) (2000), Knowledge, Belief and Character, (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield): Sosa (1991) Knowledge in Perspective, (New York: CUP): Greco (2000), Putting sceptics in their place (New York: CUP).

  33. 33.

    For example, Zagzebski (1996), Virtues of the Mind: an inquiry into the nature of virtue and the ethical foundations of knowledge (New York: CUP): Montmarquet (1993), Epistemic Virtue and Doxastic Responsibility (Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield)

  34. 34.

    Although not covered here I also think that nous (intellect), and sophia (theoretical wisdom) are key.

  35. 35.

    Roberts & Wood (2007) Intellectual Virtues: An Essay in Regulative Epistemology (Oxford: OUP): Zagzebski & De Paul (eds.) (2003) Intellectual Virtue: Perspectives from Ethics and Epistemology (Oxford: OUP).

  36. 36.

    Montmarquet (1987) ‘Epistemic Virtue’, Mind 96: 482–497.

  37. 37.

    Code (1984) ‘Toward a “Responsibilist” Epistemology’, Philosophical and Phenomenological Research XVL: 29–50.

  38. 38.

    See, for example, Heil (1983) ‘Believing What One Ought’, Journal of Philosophy 80/11: 752–765.

  39. 39.

    Nigel Mumford, 2003, p. 110

  40. 40.

    For a discussion on creativity see Heilman, K. M., Nadeau, S. E. and Beversdorf, D. O. (2003) 'Creative Innovation: Possible Brain Mechanisms', Neurocase, 9: 5, 369–379 DOI: 10.1076/neur.9.5.369.16553

  41. 41.

    See e.g. T. Klingberg (2011), Den Larande Hjarnan (especially Chaps. 7, 9 and 10), Natur och Kultur: M. A. Owen et al. (2010), Putting brain training to the test, Nature, 465, pp. 775–778: F. McNab et al. (2009), Changes in cortical dopamine D1 receptor binding associated with cognitive training, Science, 323, pp. 800–802: T. Klingberg (2010), Training and placticity of working memeory, Trends in Cognitive Science, 14, pp. 317–324: L. B. Thorell et al. (2009), training and transfer effects of executive functions in preschool children, Developmental Science, 12, pp. 106–113: C. H. Hillman et al. (2008), Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 30, pp. 5368–5375: S. J. Colcombe et al. (2006), Aeorobic exercise trainign increases brain volume in ageing humans, The Journal of Gerontology. Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 61, pp. 1166–1170: A. C. Pereira et al. (2007), an in vivo correlate of exercise-induced neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104, pp. 5638–5643.

  42. 42.

    See e.g. the work of Dr Maria Sandgren who is active at Sodertorns Hogskola, Stockholm, Sweden.

  43. 43.

    See e.g. F. Ullen et al. (2010), Thinking Outside a Less Intact Box: Thalamic Dopamine D2 Receptor Densities are Negatively Related to Psychometric Creativity in Healthy Individuals. PloS ONE 5(5): e10670. Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010670.

  44. 44.

    http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=36958&l=en.

  45. 45.

    See e.g. the studies on the connection between breaks and creativity by J. School and B. Baird, St Barabara University http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=allowing-the-mind-to-wander-aids-creativity#commentForm.

  46. 46.

    See e.g. Torrance, E. P. (1963). The creative personality and the ideal pupil. Teachers College Record, 65, pp. 220–226.

  47. 47.

    See e.g. Bachtold, L. (1974), The creative personality and the ideal pupil revisited. Journal of Creative Behaviour, 8, pp. 47–54; Cropley, A. J. (1992), More ways than one: Fostering creatvitiy. Norwood, NJ: Ablex; Dettmer, P. (1981). Improving teacher attitiudes toward carachteristics of the creatively gifted. Gifted Child Quarterly, 25,  pp. 11–19.

  48. 48.

    See e.g. Harrington et al. (1987), Testing aspects of Carl Roger’s theory of creative environments: Child-rearing antecedents of creative potential in young adolescents. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, pp. 851–856.

  49. 49.

    Erik L. Westby, V. L. Dawson, Creativity: asset or burden in the classroom? Creativity Research Journal, 1995, vol 8, no. 1, pp. 1–10

  50. 50.

    For an interesting discussion on the importance of transparent commnication and inclusiveness within the EU see J. Habermas (2011) Zur Verfassung Europas—Ein Essay, Ersatz.

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  1. Division of Philosophy, Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 78B, 100 44, Stockholm, Sweden

    Barbro Fröding

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Fröding, B. (2013). Examples of Useful Capacities. In: Virtue Ethics and Human Enhancement. SpringerBriefs in Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5672-4_5

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