Moral Cultivation : Essays on the Development of Character and Virtue

Given that morality involves being a good person, an important issue for moral thinkers is moral cultivation, or our projects aimed at becoming better people. Explaining this issue, this book deals with various traditions of moral thought to address questions about what constitutes moral cultivation.

The volume Moral Cultivation explores an overlooked topic in the renewed interest in virtue ethics, the concept of moral cultivation. While the study of virtue ethics focuses on the concept of virtue itself, an exploration of moral cultivation explores the process of attaining that virtue. The essays in this collection explore the question: How do we develop good character? Brad Wilburn has brought together a range of moral perspectives on this issue. Drawing on many different traditions, the essayists employ many schools of thought and thinkers regarding this issue, including: the Confucian tradition, Ancient Greek philosophy, Classical Rabbinic thought, the moral theory of Hume, and the imperatives of Kant. Although the essays cover a wide breadth, the focus is on a few basic questions: What does moral cultivation look like? What parts of us need to be cultivated and what methods should be used? How do moral theories connect with this aspect of our moral experience? Moral Cultivation is a great contribution to the study of virtue ethics. It is a rewarding volume for all levels of thinkers and students with an interest in philosophy or ethics.