The Skillfulness of Virtue Improving our Moral and Epistemic Lives

The Skillfulness of Virtue provides a new framework for understanding virtue as a skill, based on psychological research on self-regulation and expertise. Matt Stichter lays the foundations of his argument by bringing together theories of self-regulation and skill acquisition, which he then uses as grounds to discuss virtue development as a process of skill acquisition. This account of virtue as skill has important implications for debates about virtue in both virtue ethics and virtue epistemology. Furthermore, it engages seriously with criticisms of virtue theory that arise in moral psychology, as psychological experiments reveal that there are many obstacles to acting and thinking well, even for those with the best of intentions. Stichter draws on self-regulation strategies and examples of deliberate practice in skill acquisition to show how we can overcome some of these obstacles, and become more skillful in our moral and epistemic virtues.

Introduction; 1. Self-regulation and expertise; 2. Moral virtues as skills; 3. Motivation in skill and virtue; 4. Skills and practical wisdom; 5. The situationist critique of virtue.

Matt Stichter is Associate Professor in the School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs at Washington State University. He is the author of a number of journal articles and book chapters in ethical theory.