Title of Chapter/Section
Title of Book
Virtues and Their Vices
Editor(s) of Book
Kevin Timpe
Craig Boyd
Department
Philosophy
Document Type
Book Section/Chapter
Place of Publication
New York
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Year of Publication
2014
Page Range
199-224
Description
In this chapter, I defend an account of an angrily virtuous, or patient, person informed by recent research on emotion in empirical and philosophical psychology. I argue that virtue and vice with respect to anger is determined by excellence and deficiency with respect to all three of anger’s functions: its involvement in (1) appraisal of wrongdoing, (2) its role as a motivating force, and (3) its communicative function. Many accounts of anger assess it only with respect to one of these functions. Most typically, anger is assessed instrumentally with regard to its role in motivation. As I show, any singular evaluation of a person’s anger will ignore important dimensions of anger that bear on virtue and vice; possessing excellence with respect to only one of anger’s functions is thus insufficient for virtue. Further, lacking excellence with respect to all three functions corresponds to the two characteristic vices of anger: wrath and meekness.
Recommended Citation
Cogley, Zac. 2014. “A Study of Virtuous and Vicious Anger.” In Virtues and Their Vices, edited by Kevin Timpe and Craig Boyd, 199–224. New York: Oxford University Press.
Included in
Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Feminist Philosophy Commons, Philosophy of Mind Commons