Virtue, situationism, and the cognitive value of art

Journal article

Berger, Jacob and Alfano, Mark. (2016). Virtue, situationism, and the cognitive value of art. Monist. 99(2), pp. 144 - 158. https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onv039

Authors	Berger, Jacob and Alfano, Mark
Abstract	Virtue-based moral cognitivism holds that at least some of the value of some art consists in conveying knowledge about the nature of virtue and vice. We explore here a challenge to this view, which extends the so-called situationist challenge to virtue ethics. Evidence from social psychology indicates that individuals’ behavior is often susceptible to trivial and normatively irrelevant situational influences. This evidence not only challenges approaches to ethics that emphasize the role of virtue but also undermines versions of moral cognitivism, because the value of art cannot consist in teaching us about traits that do not exist. We thus recommend a new account of the cognitive value of art: art teaches how context and character interact to produce action.
Year	2016
Journal	Monist
Journal citation	99 (2), pp. 144 - 158
Publisher	Oxford University Press
ISSN	0026-9662
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onv039
Scopus EID	2-s2.0-84975728192
Page range	144 - 158
Research Group	Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry
Publisher's version	File Access Level Controlled
Place of publication	United Kingdom

Permalink -

https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/88xyy/virtue-situationism-and-the-cognitive-value-of-art

Restricted files

Publisher's version

(1 files)

149
total views
0
total downloads
15
views this month
0
downloads this month

These values are for the period from 19th October 2020, when this repository was created.

Export as

Related outputs

Knowledge from vice : Deeply social epistemology

Levy, Neil and Alfano, Mark. (2020). Knowledge from vice : Deeply social epistemology. Mind. 129(515), pp. 887-915. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzz017

Nietzsche's Moral Psychology

Alfano, M.. (2019). Nietzsche's Moral Psychology Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139696555

Nietzsche’s affective perspectivism as a philosophical methodology

Alfano, Mark. (2019). Nietzsche’s affective perspectivism as a philosophical methodology. In In Loeb, Paul S. (Ed.). Nietzsche’s metaphilosophy : The nature, method, and aims of philosophy pp. 127-145 Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108381338.008

Guest editors' introduction : Examining moral emotions in Nietzsche with the semantic web exploration tool : Nietzsche

Alfano, Mark and Cheong, Marc. (2019). Guest editors' introduction : Examining moral emotions in Nietzsche with the semantic web exploration tool : Nietzsche. Journal of Nietzsche Studies. 50(1), pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.5325/jnietstud.50.1.0001

Nudges and other moral technologies in the context of power : Assigning and accepting responsibility

Alfano, Mark and Robichaud, Philip. (2018). Nudges and other moral technologies in the context of power : Assigning and accepting responsibility. In In Boonin, David (Ed.). The Palgrave handbook of philosophy and public policy pp. 235-248 Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93907-0_19

A schooling in contempt : Emotions and the pathos of distance

Alfano, Mark. (2018). A schooling in contempt : Emotions and the pathos of distance. In The Nietzschean mind pp. 121-139 Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315146317-9

Technological seduction and self-radicalization

Alfano, Mark, Carter, J.Adam and Cheong, Marc. (2018). Technological seduction and self-radicalization. Journal of the American Philosophical Association. 4(3), pp. 298-322. https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2018.27

The Nietzschean precedent for anti-reflective, dialogical agency

Alfano, Mark. (2018). The Nietzschean precedent for anti-reflective, dialogical agency. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 41, pp. 12 - 13. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X17000620

Extended knowledge, the recognition heuristic, and epistemic injustice

Alfano, Mark and Skorburg, Joshua August. (2018). Extended knowledge, the recognition heuristic, and epistemic injustice. In In J. A. Carter, A. Clark and J. Kallestrup, S. Orestis Palermos and D. Pritchard (Ed.). Extended Epistemology pp. 239 - 265 Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198769811.003.0014

Identifying virtues and values through obituary data-mining

Alfano, Mark, Higgins, Andrew and Levernier, Jacob. (2018). Identifying virtues and values through obituary data-mining. Journal of Value Inquiry. 52(1), pp. 59 - 79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-017-9602-0

Reasons-based moral judgments and the erotetic theory

Koralus, Philipp and Alfano, Mark. (2017). Reasons-based moral judgments and the erotetic theory. In In J. Bonnefon and B. Tremoliere (Ed.). Moral inferences pp. 77 - 106 Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315675992

Epistemic situationism: An extended prolepsis

Fairweather, Abrol and Alfano, Mark. (2017). Epistemic situationism: An extended prolepsis. In In A. Fairweather and M. Alfano (Ed.). Epistemic situationism pp. 44 - 66 Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199688234.003.0003

Development and validation of a multi-dimensional measure of intellectual humility

Alfano, Mark, Iurino, Kathryn, Stey, Paul, Robinson, Brian, Christen, Markus, Yu, Feng and Lapsley, Daniel. (2017). Development and validation of a multi-dimensional measure of intellectual humility. PLoS ONE. 12(8), pp. 1 - 28. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182950

Gossip as a burdened virtue

Alfano, Mark and Robinson, Brian. (2017). Gossip as a burdened virtue. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. 20, pp. 473 - 487. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-017-9809-y

I know you are, but what am I? Anti-individualism in the development of intellectual humility and Wu-Wei

Robinson, Brian and Alfano, Mark. (2016). I know you are, but what am I? Anti-individualism in the development of intellectual humility and Wu-Wei. Logos and Episteme. 7(4), pp. 435 - 459.

I know you are, but what am i?: Anti-individualism in the development of intellectual humility and Wu-Wei

Robinson, Brian and Alfano, Mark. (2016). I know you are, but what am i?: Anti-individualism in the development of intellectual humility and Wu-Wei. Logos and Episteme. 7(4), pp. 435 - 459. https://doi.org/10.5840/logos-episteme20167442

The topology of communities of trust

Alfano, Mark. (2016). The topology of communities of trust. Russian Sociological Review. 15(4), pp. 30 - 56. https://doi.org/10.17323/1728-192X-2016-4-30-56

Friendship and the Structure of Trust

Alfano, Mark. (2016). Friendship and the Structure of Trust. In In A. Masala and J. Webber (Ed.). pp. 186 - 206 Oxford University Press.

Moral psychology: An introduction

Alfano, Mark. (2016). Moral psychology: An introduction Polity Press.

An enchanting abundance of types: Nietzsche's modest unity of virtue thesis

Alfano, Mark. (2015). An enchanting abundance of types: Nietzsche's modest unity of virtue thesis. Journal of Value Inquiry. 49(3), pp. 417 - 435. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-015-9499-4

Can people be virtuous?

Alfano, Mark and Montmarquet, James. (2015). Can people be virtuous? In In M. Alfano (Ed.). Current Controversies in Virtue Theory pp. 123 - 149 Routledge.

Placebo effects and informed consent

Alfano, Mark. (2015). Placebo effects and informed consent. American Journal of Bioethics. 15(10), pp. 3 - 12. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2015.1074302

Becoming less unreasonable: A reply to Sherman

Alfano, Mark. (2015). Becoming less unreasonable: A reply to Sherman. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective. 4(7), pp. 59 - 62.

Reversing the side-effect effect: The power of salient norms

Robinson, Brian, Stey, Paul and Alfano, Mark. (2015). Reversing the side-effect effect: The power of salient norms. Philosophical Studies. 172(1), pp. 177 - 206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-014-0283-2

Introduction to Current controversies in virtue theory

Alfano, Mark. (2015). Introduction to Current controversies in virtue theory. In In J. Turri (Ed.). Current controversies in virtue theory pp. 1 - 159 Routledge.

How one becomes what one is called on the relation between traits and trait-terms in Nietzsche

Alfano, Mark. (2015). How one becomes what one is called on the relation between traits and trait-terms in Nietzsche. Journal of Nietzsche Studies. 46(2), pp. 261 - 269.

What are the bearers of virtues

Alfano, Mark. (2014). What are the bearers of virtues. In In J. C. Wright and H. Sarkissan (Ed.). pp. 73 - 90 Bloomsbury Academic.

Expanding the situationist challenge to reliabilism about inference

Alfano, Mark. (2014). Expanding the situationist challenge to reliabilism about inference. In In A. Fairweather (Ed.). Virtue Epistemology Naturalized: Bridges between Virtue Epistemology and Philosophy of Science pp. 103 - 122 Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04672-3_7

Bragging

Alfano, Mark and Robinson, Brian. (2014). Bragging. Thought. 3, pp. 263 - 272. https://doi.org/10.1002/tht3.141

Stereotype threat and intellectual virtue

Alfano, Mark. (2014). Stereotype threat and intellectual virtue. In In A. Fairweather and O. Flanagan (Ed.). Naturalizing Epistemic Virtue pp. 156 - 174 Cambridge University Press.

Outlining the field - A research program for empirically informed ethics

Christen, Markus and Alfano, Mark. (2014). Outlining the field - A research program for empirically informed ethics. In In M. Christen, C. van Schaik and J. Fischer, M.Huppenbauer & C. Tanner (Ed.). Empirically Informed Ethics: Morality between Facts and Norms pp. 3 - 27 Springer.

Identifying and defending the hard core of virtue ethics

Alfano, Mark. (2013). Identifying and defending the hard core of virtue ethics. Journal of Philosophical Research. 38, pp. 233 - 260. https://doi.org/10.5840/jpr20133812

Nietzsche, naturalism, and the tenacity of the intentional

Alfano, Mark. (2013). Nietzsche, naturalism, and the tenacity of the intentional. Journal of Nietzsche Studies. 44(3), pp. 461 - 468. https://doi.org/10.5325/jnietstud.44.3.0461

The most agreeable of all vices: Nietzsche as virtue epistemologist

Alfano, Mark. (2013). The most agreeable of all vices: Nietzsche as virtue epistemologist. British Journal for the History of Philosophy. 21(4), pp. 767 - 790. https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2012.733308

Ethical issues of 'morality mining': Moral identity as a focus of data mining

Christen, Markus, Alfano, Mark, Bangerter, Endre and Lapsley, Daniel. (2013). Ethical issues of 'morality mining': Moral identity as a focus of data mining. In In H. Rahman and I. Ramos (Ed.). Ethical Data Mining Applications for Socio-Economic Development pp. 1 - 21 IGI Global.