A Dilemma for Driver on Virtues of Ignorance

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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 Year

2020

Publication Date

2020

Source

Scopus

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A Dilemma for Driver on Virtues of Ignorance, dans Science & Ignorance, consulté le 21 Novembre 2024, https://ignorancestudies.inist.fr/s/science-ignorance/item/4587

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