Christian Miller explores ethical implications of his new theory of character, which holds that our characters are made up of mixed traits with some morally positive and some morally negative aspects. He examines whether judgements of character are systematically erroneous, and assesses the challenge to virtue ethics from scepticism about virtue.

• Preface


• Part One: The Mixed Trait Framework


• 1: The Conceptual Background


• 2: The Framework of Mixed Traits


• 3: Illustrating the Framework of Mixed Traits: Cheating


• Part Two: Engaging Other Frameworks


• 4: Situationism


• 5: The CAPS Model


• 6: The Big Five


• Part Three: Applying the Framework


• 7: Errors about Character? Some Implications for Meta-Ethics


• 8: Trouble for Virtue Ethics? Some Implications for Normative Ethics


• Part Four: The Next Step


• 9: Looking Forward


• Works Cited


• Index

Christian Miller is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University. His main areas of research are meta-ethics, moral psychology, moral character, action theory, and philosophy of religion. He is also the author of Moral Character: An Empirical Theory (OUP 2013), and the editor of The Continuum Companion to Ethics (Continuum 2011) and Essays in the Philosophy of Religion (OUP 2006). His work has appeared in such journals as Noûs, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophical Studies, Philosophical Psychology, The Journal of Ethics, Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, and Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion. He is the director of The Character Project (www.thecharacterproject.com), which is funded by a substantial grant for the study of character from the John Templeton Foundation.