Moral Character

Christian Miller presents a new account of moral character. Most of us are not virtuous. We do not have virtues such as compassion, honesty, or courage. But at the same time, we are not vicious people either. We do not have vices such as cruelty, dishonesty, or cowardice. Instead most people today have characters which do not qualify as either virtuous or vicious. We have many positive moral features, but also many negative ones too. Our characters are decidedly mixed, and are much more complex than we might have thought. In Moral Character: An Empirical Theory Miller outlines a new picture of our moral character which involves what are called Mixed Character Traits. This picture can help make sense of how most of us are less than virtuous people but also morally better than the vicious.