CUNY Graduate Center
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 2016
South Orange, New Jersey, United States
Areas of Specialization
Virtue Ethics
Moral Psychology
  •  9
    Habituation into Virtue and the Alleged Paradox of Moral Education
    Social Theory and Practice 50 (1): 157-178. 2024.
    Some philosophers have argued that Aristotle’s view of habituation gives rise to a ‘paradox of moral education.’ The inculcation of habit, they contend, seems antithetical to the cultivation of virtue. I argue that this alleged paradox arises from significant misunderstandings of Aristotle’s view. Habit formation need not be at odds with the development of the kinds of intelligent, reflective capacities required for virtue. Indeed, Aristotle seems right to insist on an important role for habit i…Read more
  •  389
    Some philosophers have argued that Aristotle’s view of habituation gives rise to a ‘paradox of moral education.’ The inculcation of habit, they contend, seems antithetical to the cultivation of virtue. I argue that this alleged paradox arises from significant misunderstandings of Aristotle’s view. Habit formation need not be at odds with the development of the kinds of intelligent, reflective capacities required for virtue. Indeed, Aristotle seems right to insist on an important role for habit i…Read more
  •  36
    Beyond Silencing: Virtue, Subjective Construal, and Reasoning Practically
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 99 (4): 748-760. 2021.
    ABSTRACT In the contemporary philosophical literature, ideal virtue is often accused of setting a standard more appropriate for saints or gods than for human beings. In this paper, I undermine divinity-infused depictions of the fully virtuous, and argue that ideal virtue is, indeed, human. I focus on the virtuous person’s imperviousness to temptation, and contend that this imperviousness is not as psychologically implausible as it might seem. I argue that it is a virtuous person’s subjective con…Read more
  •  28
    Virtue and Embodied Skill: Refining the Virtue-Skill Analogy
    Journal of Value Inquiry 55 (2): 251-268. 2021.
    The analogy between virtue and skill is well-known from the ancient Greek ethical tradition, and in Intelligent Virtue, Julia Annas makes a compelling case for its continued relevance to contemporary theory. Yet scant attention gets paid to the kind of skill to which virtue is most appropriately analogized. An insufficiently nuanced view of skill, I contend, renders the analogy less illuminating than it otherwise might be, and prevents virtue ethicists from making optimal use of the analogy. I…Read more
  •  20
    Managing Vice (review)
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 23 (5): 871-874. 2020.
  •  25
    On Patience: Reclaiming a Foundational Virtue, written by Matthew Pianalto (review)
    Journal of Moral Philosophy 16 (2): 239-242. 2019.
  •  68
    Virtuous Construal: In Defense of Silencing
    Journal of the American Philosophical Association 5 (2): 229-245. 2019.
    Over several articles, John McDowell sketches an analogy between virtue and perception, whereby the virtuous person sees situations in a distinctive way, a way that explains her virtuous behavior. Central to this view is his notion of silencing, a psychological phenomenon in which certain considerations fail to operate as reasons in a virtuous person's practical reasoning. Despite its influence on many prominent virtue ethicists, McDowell's ‘silencing view’ has been criticized as psychologically…Read more
  •  74
    Aristotle's Account of Courage
    History of Philosophy Quarterly 34 (4): 313-330. 2017.
    Aristotle’s account of courage in the Nicomachean Ethics leaves readers with several unresolved issues. In this paper, I draw out three: 1) questions regarding the scope of the virtue; 2) the extent to which, or even if, the courageous experience fear; and 3) if—and if so, how—Aristotle’s distinction between virtue and continence might hold in the case of courage. I argue that there are good reasons to extend the scope of courage beyond the battlefield and risk of life and limb, that Aristotle d…Read more
  •  560
    Moral Judgments and Motivation: Making Sense of Mixed Intuitions
    Ethical Perspectives 23 (2): 209-230. 2016.
    The debate between motivational judgment internalism and motivational judgment externalism focuses on whether a moral judgment is sufficient for motivation, or if an additional conative state is required. It is clear from the literature that internalists and exernalists have different intuitions regarding moral judgments. Most individuals, however, seem to hold a mix of internalist and externalist intuitions. My aim in this paper is to offer an approach to the issue that can account for this …Read more
  •  126
    Is Patience a Virtue?
    Journal of Value Inquiry 51 (2): 327-340. 2017.
    There are significant challenges to developing a neo-Aristotelian account of a virtue of patience. First, on an Aristotelian understanding, virtue is both instrumentally good and good in itself. Yet exclusively instrumental views of patience are pervasive in the philosophical literature. Furthermore, these instrumental views present patience as more like a psychological skill than a virtue of character. Skills, however, can be misused. If patience is to be a virtue, its account must entail goodn…Read more