Developing the Virtues ─ Integrating Perspectives

Ethicists and psychologists have become increasingly interested in the development of virtue in recent years, approaching the topic from the perspectives of virtue ethics and developmental psychology respectively. Such interest in virtue development has spread beyond academia, as teachers and parents have increasingly striven to cultivate virtue as part of education and child-rearing.

Looking at these parallel trends in the study and practice of virtue development, the essays in this volume explore such questions as: How can philosophical work on virtue development inform psychological work on it, and vice versa? How should we understand virtue as a dimension of human personality? What is the developmental foundation of virtue? What are the evolutionary aspects of virtue and its development? How is virtue fostered? How is virtue exemplified in behavior and action? How is our conception of virtue influenced by context and by developmental and social experiences? What are the tensions, impediments and prospects for an integrative field of virtue study? Rather than centering on each discipline, the essays in this volume are orgnaized around themes and engage each other in a broader dialogue. The volume begins with an introductory essay from the editors that a wide-angle view of the fuller range of philosophical and empirical issues that have surrounded the notion of virtue in recent years.

Julia Annas is Regents Professor in Philosophy at the University of Arizona, having also taught at Oxford. She was the founding editor of Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Darcia Narvaez is Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame. She brings evolutionary theory, neurobiology and positive psychology to considerations of wellbeing, morality and wisdom across the lifespan, including early life, childhood and adulthood and in multiple contexts (parenting, schooling).

Nancy E. Snow is Professor and Director of the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing at the University of Oklahoma. With Darcia Narvaez, she is the co-director of the three-year project, "The Self, Motivation, and Virtue," funded by $2.6 million from the Templeton Religion Trust. She is the author of over thirty papers and one monograph, and has edited or co-edited five volumes.