Minding the Gap

Abstract

Abstract The book is a philosophical exploration of the gap between our moral ideals and the imperfect moral reality in which we live, and the implications of that gap for the practical project of moral improvement. We are limited in our ability to recognize and be guided by moral ideals, owing to a variety of moral and epistemic shortcomings. In light of that, how can the practical project of moral improvement get off the ground? An account of moral improvement should begin from psychologically plausible starting points, and it should also rely on ideals that are both normatively authoritative and regulatively efficacious for the agent taking up the project. The book argues that moral improvement should be understood as the project of articulating and inhabiting an aspirational moral identity. That identity is cultivated through existing practical identities and standpoints, which are fundamentally social and which generate practical conflicts about how to live. The success of moral improvement depends on its taking place within what the book describes as good moral neighborhoods. Moral neighborhoods are collaborative normative spaces, constructed from networks of social practices and conventions, in which we can act as better versions of ourselves. The book draws on theatrical metaphors to describe how moral neighborhoods are created and maintained through moral stagecraft and mutual pretense. It concludes with a discussion of three social practices that contribute to good moral neighborhoods and so to moral improvement.