Table Of ContentVirtues in Action
Also by Michael W. Austin
BEING GOOD: Christian Virtues for Everyday Life ( with R. Douglas Geivett )
COFFEE – PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE: Grounds for Debate ( with Scott Parker )
CONCEPTIONS OF PARENTHOOD: Ethics and the Family
CYCLING – PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE: A Philosophical Tour De Force ( with
Jesús Ilundain )
FATHERHOOD – PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE: The Dao of Daddy ( with Lon
Nease )
FOOTBALL AND PHILOSOPHY: Going Deep
RUNNING AND PHILOSOPHY: A Marathon for the Mind
THE OLYMPICS AND PHILOSOPHY ( with Heather Reid )
WISE STEWARDS: Philosophical Foundations of Christian Parenting
Virtues in Action
New Essays in Applied Virtue Ethics
Edited by
Michael W. Austin
Eastern Kentucky University, USA
Selection and editorial matter © Michael W. Austin 2013
Chapters © Contributors 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-28028-2
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For my students
Contents
Notes on Contributors ix
Introduction 1
Part I Professional Virtue
1 Virtue-Centered Approaches to Education:
Prospects and Pitfalls 11
Gregory Bassham
2 The Virtues of Honorable Business Executives 23
Dan Demetriou
3 Sport as a Moral Practice: An Aristotelian Approach 39
Michael W. Austin
Part II Social Virtue
4 Sex, Temperance, and Virtue 55
Stan van Hooft
5 Extend Your Benevolence: Kindness and Generosity in
the Family and Beyond 70
Heidi Giebel
6 A Virtue Ethical Case for Pacifism 86
Franco V. Trivigno
7 Some Critical Reflections on Abortion and Virtue Theory 102
Matthew Flannagan
Part III Environmental Virtue
8 Environmental Degradation, Environmental Justice,
and the Compassionate Agent 119
Chris Frakes
9 Humility and Environmental Virtue Ethics 132
Matthew Pianalto
vii
viii Contents
Part IV Intellectual Virtue
10 Hope as an Intellectual Virtue 153
N ancy E. Snow
11 Virtue Ethics and Moral Failure: Lessons from
Neuroscientific Moral Psychology 171
L isa Tessman
12 Getting Our Minds Out of the Gutter: Fallacies that
Foul Our Discourse (and Virtues that Clean it Up) 190
R obert K. Garcia and Nathan L. King
Bibliography 2 07
Index 2 21
Notes on Contributors
Michael W. A ustin is Professor of Philosophy at Eastern Kentucky
University in Richmond, Kentucky. His research interests include ethics,
philosophy of the family, philosophy of sport, and philosophy of reli-
gion. He has published articles related to these issues in The Journal of
Value Inquiry, P hilosophy and Theology , J ournal of Applied Philosophy, J ournal
of the Philosophy of Sport , and P hilosophia Christi . He has written or edited
nine books, including C onceptions of Parenthood (2007), T he Olympics and
Philosophy , with Heather Reid (2012), and B eing Good: Christian Virtues
for Everyday Life, with R. Douglas Geivett (2012). His blog, “Ethics for
Everyone,” can be found at the Psychology Today website: http://www.
psychologytoday.com/blog/ethics-everyone. He is currently working on
a book about the virtue of humility.
Gregory B assham is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department
at King’s College (Pa.). He is the author or editor of seven books, including
(most recently) T he Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy (2010), T he Hobbit
and Philosophy (2012), and C ritical Thinking: A Student’s Introduction (5th
ed., 2013). He has published widely on educational issues.
Dan Demetriou is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University
of Minnesota, Morris. His writes and teaches on topics in m etaethics,
applied ethics, professional ethics, and philosophy of law. He is
currently writing a book on honor ethics, and he founded and adminis-
ters honorethics.org, an academic blog devoted to the cross-disciplinary
study of honor.
Matthew Flannagan is a theologian based in Auckland, New Zealand.
His research interests include ethics and philosophy of religion. He
has published on these subjects in journals such as P hilo, Philosophia
Christi , C olloquium, and The Journal of Medicine and Ethics . He is currently
co-writing D id God Command Genocide? with Paul Copan, to be published
by Baker Academic.
Chris Frakes is an independent scholar and writer. Her research inter-
ests include ethics, feminist philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and
environmental philosophy. Her publications include, “When Strangers
Call: A Consideration of Care, Justice and Compassion” H ypatia vol. 25
no. 1 (Winter 2010) and “Do the Compassionate Flourish?: Overcoming
ix
x Notes on Contributors
Anguish and the Impulse to Violence” J ournal of Buddhist Ethics vol. 14
(2007). Dr. Frakes was a participating scholar in the National Endowment
of the Humanities summer institute, “A Fierce Green Fire at 100: Aldo
Leopold and the Roots of Environmental Ethics” in 2009.
Robert K. Garcia is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M
University in College Station, Texas. His areas of interest include meta-
physics, philosophy of religion, environmental ethics, and food ethics.
He has co-edited, with Nathan L. King, I s Goodness without God Good
Enough? (2008). This volume includes a debate between William Lane
Craig and Paul Kurtz concerning whether or not there is a relationship
between God and ethics, as well as contributions from a number of
prominent scholars representing diverse views on this topic.
Heidi G iebel is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of
St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her publications include articles in
International Philosophical Quarterly, Review Journal of Political Philosophy,
American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, and T eaching Philosophy. Heidi’s
primary research and teaching interests are in theoretical and applied
ethics, moral education, and medieval philosophy. She is currently
working on an interdisciplinary (philosophy and psychology) project
regarding moral education in undergraduate ethics courses and on a few
more papers in the area of comparative (Confucian and Aristotelian-
Thomistic) ethics.
Nathan L. King is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Whitworth
University. His research interests include epistemology and the philos-
ophy of religion. He has published articles in such journals as P hilosophy
and Phenomenological Research , P hilosophy Compass, and The Journal of
Philosophical Research . Along with Robert K. Garcia, he is co-editor of Is
Goodness without God Good Enough? (2008).
Matthew P ianalto is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Eastern
Kentucky University, where he teaches courses in philosophy, humani-
ties, applied ethics, and animal studies. He has published articles on
various topics in ethics, which have appeared in journals including
Inquiry , International Journal of Philosophical Studies , The Journal of Applied
Philosophy , The Journal of Value Inquiry , Philosophical Investigations , and
Philosophia, as well as in the magazine P hilosophy Now. A recent essay
of his on moral courage was awarded the Robert Papazian Annual Essay
Prize on Themes from Ethics and Political Philosophy. He is currently
writing about patience and its relationship to other virtues.
