The Psychology of Character and Virtue

Product Description

Moral frailty and failings have fascinated thinkers ever since the first records of drama, philosophy, and religion. How can we explain deliberate unethical acts and persistent urges to do evil? How can we account for wrongdoing in the face of intentions to do good? Strident examples of the flawed hero and the divided self raise problems for the psychological understanding of character and virtue. Neither normative principles nor simple accounts of immaturity, errors, and sin are enough to explain them. The difficulty of inculcating character and virtue makes us ask furthermore whether families, communities, and even republics can become havens for civic, moral, and religious growth. What i…