Are Character Traits Reliable?

Amanda Thomas Philosophy 103 November 19, 2012 root No. 2 In the book Experiments in Ethics by Kwame Anthony Appiah he states that Individual moments of compassion and honesty makes our outlives better, tear down if we atomic number 18 not compassionate through and through. (Appiah 70) He also continues on to declare that we terminatet be content with knowing what kind of mess we are it matters, too, what kind of people we hope to be (Appiah 72). He discusses the family between moral philosophy andscientific look into.He used roughly research proves such as Milgrams and The Good Samaritan to further explain this repeat. During these discussions he explains the contravention between situationist and globalist/ lawfulness ethics. Situationists are people who feel that what announces behavior are situational f actionors instead of percentage traits. Globalists disagree with that statement and argue that character traits predict behavior. They also propose that good action s are defined as those through with(p) by people with the proper laws and that virtues exist as part of individuals character makeup.A variety of psychological studies doubt these premises. The main issue is whether we have static personality and character traits. Appiah uses modus tollens to give a logically from of the situationist argument. If the juice is make with sugar, then the juice is sweet. The juice is not sweet. Therefore, the juice is not make with sugar. One premises using modus tollens that a situationist could agree on is that if virtue ethics is true, then character traits predict behavior. Character traits dont predict behavior therefore virtue ethics is not true.Appiah let ins the Milgram experiment to rule out certain strong forms of virtue ethics. He notes that virtue ethics smoke calm serve as a postulate to life, defining the ideals that should serve as our aims, even thought we rarely live up to them. Moral psychology imposes limits on the kind of peop le we can become. Appiah uses a phrase that is, of course, necessary to consider in combination with the quote just mentioned, which is this We imperfect creatures (Appiah 53). Darley and Batsons Good Samaritan study was conducted by aftermath helping behavior in which students at the PrincetonTheological Seminary were asked to make individual instaurations on the story of The Good Samaritan. The accomplice was slumped in a doorway in need of help. Unrushed seminarians helped the accomplice over 60% of the time. When seminarians were told beforehand that they were late for their presentation the helping rate dropped dramatically. Appiah accepts that if the situationist case is as right, then globalism needs to be rejected. However, he argues that virtue ethics can live on even with the end of globalism, or at least he argues that virtue still matters in a world in which situationist lessons are learned.We hope to increase consistent character traits and to obtain a highly assimi lated character, the efforts of attempting to behave in ways show that virtues is one that is worth making. It makes our lives better if we help others a bit more when we are in a hurry than we would if we were nonchalant about attempting to obtain the virtues. He also feels that one can take and embrace the truth in both(prenominal) virtue ethics and situationist by putting people in situations where their virtue is maximized. He feels that the premises arent necessarily all true.Appiah believes that experimental research has an even deeper connection to morality. To some extent, we have to trust our gut feelings when determining what is right and wrong. He states in Chapter 1 that The conjunction of virtue ethics and situationism urges us to make it easier both to avoid doing what murderers do and to avoid being what murderersare. I believe that Appiahs view on virtue ethics and situationist is true. Character traits arent all reliable and certain character traits can help dete rmine how you act in a certain situation but, also certain situations can completely dismay your character traits.