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Mind 2008 117(467):603-612; doi:10.1093/mind/fzn046
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© Sreenivasan 2008

Character and Consistency: Still More Errors

Gopal Sreenivasan

Philosophy Department Duke University 201 W. Duke Building Box 90743 Durham, NC 27708 USA gopal.sreenivasan{at}duke.edu


  Abstract

This paper continues a debate among philosophers concerning the implications of situationist experiments in social psychology for the theory of virtue. In a previous paper (2002), I argued among other things that the sort of character trait problematized by Hartshorne and May's (1928) famous study of honesty is not the right sort to trouble the theory of virtue. Webber (2006) criticizes my argument, alleging that it founders on an ambiguity in ‘cross-situational consistency’ and that Milgram's (1974) obedience experiment is immune to the objections I levelled against Hartshorne and May. Here I respond to his criticisms. The most important error in Webber's argument is that it overlooks a distinction between ‘one time performance’ experiments and ‘iterated trial’ experiments. I explain why the former cannot begin to trouble the theory of virtue.


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