A Dilemma for Driver on Virtues of Ignorance
Item Type
Author
Abstract
For Julia Driver, some virtues involve ignorance. Modesty, for example, is a disposition to underestimate self-worth, and blind charity is a disposition not to see others’ defects. Such “virtues of ignorance,” she argues, serve as counterexamples to the Aristotelian view that virtue requires intellectual excellence. But Driver seems to face a dilemma: if virtues of ignorance involve ignorance of valuable knowledge, then they do not merit virtue status; but if they involve ignorance of trivial knowledge, then they do not preclude intellectual excellence. So, either there are no virtues of ignorance, or there are no virtues of ignorance – at least not the sort of ignorance that precludes intellectual excellence. Virtues of ignorance therefore fail as counterexamples to Aristotelian virtue theory. © 2020, Springer Nature B.V.
Subject
Ignorance
Aristotelian virtue theory
Julia Driver
Virtue
Virtues of ignorance
Publication Title
Publication Year
2020
Publication Date
2020
Source
Scopus