Aristotle and Expertise: Ideas on the Skillfulness of Virtue

AbstractMany philosophers working on virtue theory have resisted the idea that the virtues are practical skills, apparently following Aristotle ’s resistance to that idea. Bucking the trend, Matt Stichter defends a strong version of this idea inThe Skillfulness of Virtue by marshaling a wide range of conceptual and empirical arguments to argue that the moral virtues are robust skills involving the cognitive-conative unification of Aristotelianphron êsis ( ‘practical intelligence’). Here I argue that Aristotle overlooks a more delimited kind of practical intelligence, strongly analogous to his own account ofphron êsis, that unifies complex forms of expertise such as medicine or even high-level sports. Insofar as the skill model of virtue is compelling, it must draw on a robust conception of practical expertise (techn ê) like the one developed here rather than the ordinary, anemic conception of practical skills.
Source: Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research