“Characters in Hollywood movies encounter a lot of car chases. Characters in novels rarely wash their hands or do their laundry. And in the work of moral psychologists, people deliberate and reflect a lot. They deliberate, one sometimes feels, whenever they perform an action, and certainly whenever they act for good reasons.” PeopleSometimesReasonCharacterActionMoralNovelPsychologyCarEthicsPsychologistLaundry Book:Unprincipled Virtue: An Inquiry Into Moral Agency Source: Unprincipled Virtue: An Inquiry Into Moral Agency
“A very tall man once asked a question after my talk. Before beginning his question, he explained that the reason he was standing up is not to be intimidating but rather to make eye contact. His question was essentially "are we really interested in moral motives? Isn't it all about action?". I pointed out to him that it was not enough for him to do the right thing - stand up - but he also wanted me to know that he is doing it from the right motive or for the right reason - to make eye contact, rather than to be intimidating. Voila, moral psychology.” MenReasonEnoughEyeActionMoralPsychologyRight ThingMotiveIntimidatingEye Contact Author:Nomy Arpaly
“The fact that only humans above a certain age can be morally virtuous, rather than babies or cats, means that that being moral requires some cognitive ability. If virtue is about desires, it is worth remembering that you can't desire some things without being able to conceive of them. Suppose a virtuous person will desire to make people happy and desire to tell the truth. You can't desire to make people happy without having the concept "happy" and you can't desire to be truthful if you don't have have the concept "lie", so a cat or a baby cannot desire these things.” PeopleMeanAgeRememberLyingDesireAbilityMoralVirtueBabyCatTelling The TruthTruthfulVirtuousBeing Truthful Author:Nomy Arpaly
“Moral virtues and intellectual virtues are very different from each other, and moral virtue has to do with motivation, not cognition. Moral virtue requires a human level of intelligence, but it doesn't require that one be an intelligent human.” DifferentMotivationMoralVirtueIntellectualIntelligent Author:Nomy Arpaly
“I am not committed in any way to the traditional concept of character - the concept of "character trait" as involving predictable behavior. I am committed to a view in the neighborhood - the view that the moral worth of one's actions depends on the quality of will expressed in them.” CharacterActionQualityMoralBehaviorCommittedNeighborhoodTraitsPredictableCharacter Trait Author:Nomy Arpaly
“A person is praiseworthy for a right action to the extent that her action manifests, and is rationalized by, good will, that is, concern for the right and the good, not necessarily under the description "right" or "good". A person is blameworthy for a wrong action to the extent that her action manifests, and is rationalized by, ill will - concern for the wrong and bad, also de re - or moral indifference - lack or deficiency of good will.” ActionMoralConcernIllIndifferencePraiseworthy Author:Nomy Arpaly
“Other things being equal, ill will is worse than moral indifference (as in causing suffering for money vs causing suffering to cause suffering), though things are rarely equal.” SufferingMoralEqualIllIndifferenceBeing Equal Author:Nomy Arpaly
“Duties concern things that are voluntary. I do think that if you have a moral duty to bring me back the book you borrowed, that implies, roughly, that your doing so depends on your wanting to do so: if you want to bring me the book, you will. This is not the case if you are stuck at some airport due to a snowstorm, far away from me. This, however, is not the same as "ought" implying a metaphysical "can".” ThinkingBookMoralDutyConcernStuckFar AwayMetaphysical Author:Nomy Arpaly