On the Distinction Between Intellectual and Moral Virtues

Abstract

The Appendix examines the relationship between intellectual virtues, conceived as character traits, and what are typically thought of as moral virtues. Three possible accounts of this relation are considered: (1) what we call “intellectual virtues” just are moral virtues; (2) intellectual virtues are a proper subset of moral virtues; and (3) intellectual virtues are fundamentally distinct from moral virtues. A position is defended according to which a trait's being an intellectual virtue depends on its being internally orientated toward distinctively epistemic goods, while a trait's being a moral virtue depends on its being others‐regarding. The result is that there is substantial overlap between the class of intellectual virtues and the class of moral virtues and that consequently a position somewhere between (2) and (3) is correct.