“I would be ok if I found out for sure that if I am in any way superior to a wolf it is simply in virtue of my brain's higher capacity and complexity. A large difference - my cerebral equipment allows me to have such diverse concepts as "hope", "funky", "England", "multiplication", "three strikes" and "the categorical imperative" - but a difference in degree. Wolves, of course, are superior to me with regards to smelling, hearing, and running, and are generally superior to humans in that they don't kill each other.” RunningVirtueComplexityDiverseFunky 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
“Virtue is about wanting right and good things, not about being particularly good at thinking.” ThinkingVirtueGood Things Author:Nomy Arpaly
“Though we think intrinsic desires tend to be pretty stable, we do not think they imply anything like the amount of predictability in behavior that traditional virtue ethics requires for someone to have a one-word-in-English character trait such as "benevolence". Other things being equal, a person with more of a desire for other people's wellbeing will do more for other people's wellbeing, but things are almost never equal.” ThinkingCharacterDesireVirtueEqualBehaviorEthicsTraitsBenevolenceWellbeingPredictabilityBeing EqualCharacter Trait Author:Nomy Arpaly