Unprincipled Virtue : An Inquiry Into Moral Agency

Arpaly, Nomy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195179765 ISBN 13: 9780195179767

Publisher: Oxford University Press USA, 2004

Nomy Arpaly rejects the model of rationality used by most ethicists and action theorists. Both observation and psychology indicate that people act rationally without deliberation, and act irrationally with deliberation. By questioning the notion that our own minds are comprehensible to us--and therefore questioning much of the current work of action theorists and ethicists--Arpaly attempts to develop a more realistic conception of moral agency.

Review:

"I felt sure I would like Nomy Arpaly's book when I opened it to the first page and saw John LeCarré's name in the first sentence. I was not disappointed. Arpaly uses an engaging mix of literary examples and rigorous analysis to present and argue for a variety of interesting claims relating to virtue. Arpaly has something novel and interesting to say about autonomy, agency, moral worth, and virtue. This is an excellent book, and one of the best I've read recently."―Julia Driver, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

About the Author:

Nomy Arpaly Assistant Professor of Philosophy Brown University