Eudaimonic Ethics The Philosophy and Psychology of Living Well Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory Series

In this book, Lorraine Besser-Jones develops a eudaimonistic virtue ethics based on a psychological account of human nature. While her project maintains the fundamental features of the eudaimonistic virtue ethical framework?virtue, character, and well-being?she constructs these concepts from an empirical basis, drawing support from the psychological fields of self-determination and self-regulation theory. Besser-Jones?s resulting account of "eudaimonic ethics" presents a compelling normative theory and offers insight into what is involved in being a virtuous person and "acting well." This original contribution to contemporary ethics and moral psychology puts forward a provocative hypothesis of what an empirically-based moral theory would look like.

1. Moderate Psychological Realism 2. Innate Psychological Needs 3. Sociability 4. Autonomy, Identification, and Morality 5. A Complex Account of Character 6. An Instrumental Theory of Virtue 7. Practical Reason, Goal Pursuit, and Acting Well 8. Value Fulfillment 9. Acting Well 10. Virtuous Agency

Lorraine Besser-Jones is an assistant professor in the philosophy department at Middlebury College. She is the co-editor of the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Virtue Ethics (2014) and the author of many articles on moral psychology that have appeared in journals such as Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophical Psychology, and Journal of Moral Philosophy.