On the Grounding of the Virtues in Human Nature

Abstract

AbstractAristotelian naturalism rests neither on merely descriptive empirical facts nor on a comprehensive ethical worldview, but on a set of descriptions about human life that fall somewhere in the middle: they are ethical but non-evaluative beliefs about human nature and how life goes. Within this framework, we can ground the familiar list of virtue and vices, and locate substantive philosophical disagreements in the right place, namely about what kind of living thing human beings are and what they need to flourish. Although it is unlikely to be convincing to an immoralist (let alone provide motivating reasons for such a person), such an approach fills out the picture of how the lessons we have learned about virtue and vice can be integrated into a more comprehensive and philosophically satisfying account of human nature.