Phenomenology and Virtue Ethics

The correlation between person and environment has long been a central focus of phenomenological analysis. While phenomenology is usually understood as a descriptive discipline showing how essential features of the human encounter with things and people in the world are articulated, phenomenology is also based on ethical concerns. Husserl himself, the founder of the movement, gave several lecture courses on ethics. This volume focuses on one trend in ethics—virtue ethics—and its connection to phenomenology. The essays explore how phenomenology contributes to this field of ethics and clarifies some of its central issues, such as flourishing and good character traits. The volume initiates a conversation with virtue ethicists that is underrepresented in the current literature. Phenomenology and Virtue Ethics offers contributions from prominent phenomenologists who explore the following issues: how phenomenology is connected to the ancient Greek or Christian virtue tradition, how phenomenology and its foundational thinkers are oriented toward virtue ethics, and how phenomenology is itself a virtue discipline. The focus on phenomenology and virtue ethics in a single volume is the first of its kind.

Table of Contents:
Notes on Contributors Phenomenology and Virtue Ethics: an Introduction Kevin Hermberg Part I: Phenomenology and the Tradition 1. Phainomenon and Logos in Aristotle’s Ethics Lawrence J. Hatab 2. ’Disimpropriation’ and Infused Virtue: The Question of (Christian) Virtue Ethics in the Phenomenology of Michel Henry Michelle Rebidoux 3. Being and Virtuousness: Toward a Platonic-Heideggerian Virtue Ethics Matthew King 4. Horizon Intentionality and Aristotelian Friendship Eric Chelstrom 5. Value, Affectivity, and Virtue in Aristotle, Scheler, and von Hildebrand Gregory B. Sadler Part II: Theoretical and Contemporary Comparative Accounts 6. Phenomenology, Eudaimonia, and the Virtues John J. Drummond 7. Phenomenology and Virtue Ethics: Complementary Anti-Theoretical Methodological and Ethical Trajectories? Jack Reynolds 8. Phenomenology and the Virtues: Scheler and von Hildebrand Robert Wood 9. The Self that Recedes: A Phenomenology of Virtue J. Jeremy Wisnewski Part III: Application of Phenomenology as a Virtue Discipline 10. The Virtues of Agency: A Phenomenology of Security, Courage and Creativity John Russon 11. Heideggerian Perfectionism and the Phenomenology of the Pedagogical Truth Event Iain Thomson 12. Descent to the Things Themselves: The Virtue of Dissent John Duncan 13. Correlates of the Good Life: Body, Wilderness and Expertise Paul Gyllenhammer References Index

About the Author :
Kevin Hermberg is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Dominican College, New York, USA. Paul Gyllenhammer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University, Queens, NY, USA.

Review :
Hermberg and Gyllenhammer have put together a richly informed and creative collection of essays that offers compelling reasons for thinking about virtue ethics and phenomenology together. Focusing on the tradition as well as contemporary debates, the volume is an invaluable resource for those working in both fields and for anyone who questions what it is to live the good life. Much as Edith Stein earlier in the 20th century worked to bring together Husserlian phenomenology and Thomism, the authors in this new volume definitively and carefully argue that phenomenology and virtue ethics have a great deal to say to each other. The quality of the articles is first-rate, and editors Gyllenhammer and Hermberg are to be commended on their excellent collection, which embraces both eminent, established voices in phenomenology as well as newer, rising stars. Clearly, this book will be of great use to faculty and to students in both undergraduate and graduate courses – primarily those in the history of philosophy, ancient philosophy, ethics, and phenomenology. However, the volume's main contribution lies not only in its essential re-visioning of the history of philosophy but also (and perhaps more importantly) in its creation of a meaningful, open-ended dialogue between pairs of Aristotelian and phenomenological concepts – such as friendship and horizon; flourishing and the lived-body; and habit and creativity. Though the pairing of phenomenology and virtue ethics might initially seem forced or unconstructive, this collection of essays opens a dialogue between the two traditions that is both insightful and timely in showing various ways in which the two may be thought to converge. The book is structured in three parts that progress from dealing with specific areas of commonality between phenomenology and virtue ethics, to phenomenological accounts of virtue-exposing similarity and divergence among contemporary thinkers, to an attempt to show the virtue in the application of phenomenology. Contributors are recognizable in their respective fields, offering essays that, though accessible, are more appropriate to graduate students and professional academics than general or undergraduate readers. Given the breadth and depth of the specific philosophic traditions under discussion, a moderate amount of background knowledge in philosophy is assumed. For those who have it and who are interested in exploring various connections between these important and influential topics, this book is an excellent resource