Department Colloquium: Dr. Dahm on Virtue

The Philosophy Department and the AU Philosophy Club proudly sponsor the following presentation

“Instant Virtue:

A Thomistic Account

of One Act Habit Formation”

by

Dr. Brandon Dahm

Franciscan University of Steubenville

 

Thursday, April 11, 2019

3pm in Schar Ronk Lecture Hall

In both ancient and contemporary virtue ethics, it is standardly thought that we grow in virtue by repeated acts of virtue. For example, one becomes a patient person by practicing patience. But there are examples that of people apparently becoming virtuous in a single action. In one case a person goes from being an alcoholic to being temperate in a strange single encounter with a therapist. After explaining the examples, I’ll examine what can be said about them from the virtue ethics of Thomas Aquinas. The examples put pressure on Aquinas’s virtue theory, but I’ll argue that with some slight changes it can explain the examples.

Come for an enlightening and lively discussion.  All are welcome! 


Sponsored by the AU Philosophy Club,

in conjunction with the Philosophy Department and PHI SIGMA Tau