On Moral Character: A Practical Guide to Aristotle’s Virtues and Vices by Jody Palmour (review)

548 BOOK REVIEWS On Moral Character: A Practical Guide to .Aristotle's Virtues and Vices. By JODY PALMOUR. Washington, D.C.: The .Archon Institute for Leadership Development, 1986. Pp. 348. $24.95 cloth, $13.95 paper. During the last two decades many moral philosophers have made a "turn to the virtues.'' Perhaps we should call it a "return" to the virtues, for these philosophers emphasize the role of virtues and vices in moral theory in ways reminiscent of ancient Greek and Roman, and pre-modern Judeo-Christian moral philosophy. What began with a trickle of pub- (lications in the 1960s has grown in the last few years to a flood of monographs , journal articles, and papers at professional meetings. Why all of this renewed interest in character .ethics, or virtue ethics~ One reason is the belief that within the virtue tradition there is a more adequate moral psychology and grounding for moral education than can be found in modern theories focused on rights, contracts, or preference-satisfaction. It seems odd, given this professed reason for the scholarly interest in character ethics, that few professional philosophers write introductions to virtue theory for an audience of undergraduates, secondary students, or the general population. Dr. Palmour attempts to remedy this with On Moral Character. He writes for "anyone trying to work with people and ibring out what is best in them in [the fields of] education, training, management , counseling or writing" (p. 12). As the subtitle indicates, this book is an introductory survey of the virtues and vices which Aristotle treats. In eight chapters with practical titles like "Handling Painful and Destructive Things" and "Handling S.elf-Respect and Status" Palmour comments on the catalogue of individual traits of character which .Aristotle discusses in the Nicomachean Ethics, books III and IV. Each section begins with a quotation from Aristotle, and the author's commentary follows. As he does not wish to intrude on the reader's confrontation with .Aristotle, Palmour generally limits his comments to restatement and illustration. There are two exceptions . First, in a few instances he quotes one of Aristotle's philosophical opponents in order to show that on the particular topic Aristotle is clearly correct. For example, a philosopher's comment ,that .Aristotle was a " supercilious prig " for saying that we should become indignant at the morally undeserved good fortune of others is shown to be off the mark when Aristotle's view is read in context (p. 317). Second, Palmour suggests, but does not develop, interesting correlations with psychoanalytic thought. For instance, he compares .Aristotle's account of generosity and related vices to character types identified by Freud (genital, anal, and oral), Fromm (productive, hoarding, exploitative, and receptive ), and Ericson (pp. 157-158). BOOK REVIEWS 549 To enrich the material from the Nicomachean Ethics, the author weaves in Aristotle's analyses of emotions from the Art of Rhetoric. The account of fear and confidence (Rh II,5) becomes a preface to the discussion of courage (NE III,6-8); and similarly a discussion of anger and calmness (Rh II,2-3) introduces gentleness (NE IV,5), and comments on kindness and friendliness (Rh II,7 and 4) introduces friendship (NE IV,6). In the most ambitious and successful use of the Rhetoric, Palmour substitutes the analyses of pity, indignation, envy, spite, and contempt (Bihl II, 8-11) for the complicated NE account of justice (NE V). Palmour makes the point that a just person cares that each gets what he deserves, and so the just person is disposed to feel a range of emotions: pity when others suffer undeservingly from a distribution, and indignation when they prosper at someone else's expense in a distribution, etc. Because Palmour limits his commentary to cautious restatement of Aristotle's views, there is very little in the body of the book with which I can disagree without taking on The Philosopher himself. And from disagreeing with Aristotle I will (mostly) refrain. The long (62 pp.) introduction is another matter. A major theme of the introduction is that " Aristotle and his heirs opened and settled in this philosophical territory [the virtue tradition]" and " Aristotelian philosophers have a special responsibility as the keepers of...