Mark Alfano's guest appearances

Mark Alfano

New Books in Philosophy

New Books Network

On Wisdom

The Dissenter

Exchanges: A Cambridge UP Podcast

Jonathan Haidt

John Danaher

Samir Okasha

Brian Leiter

Michael Huemer

Jennifer Lackey

Lisa Bortolotti

Helen Steward

Michele Gelfand

Peter Adamson

Simon Blackburn

Paul Bloom

Rivka Weinberg

Jordan Peterson

Justin Tosi

OwlTail

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter SubscribeStar: https://www.subscribestar.com/the-dissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter PayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuy PayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l PayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz PayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m PayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao  ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT Anchor (podcast): https://anchor.fm/thedissenter  Dr. Mark Alfano is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Delft University of Technology and the Australian Catholic University. Dr. Alfano uses tools and methods from philosophy and the sciences to explore topics in moral psychology, epistemology, and digital humanities. He studies how people become and remain virtuous, how values become integrated into people's lives, and how these virtues and values are (or fail to be) manifested in their perception, thoughts, feelings, deliberations, and behavior. One of the guiding themes of his work is that moral philosophy without psychological content is empty, but psychological investigation without philosophical insight is blind. He’s the author of books like Character as Moral Fiction, and Nietzsche's Moral Psychology. In this episode, we focus mostly of Dr. Alfano’s work on virtue ethics and moral character. We first get into issues regarding modern accounts of virtue ethics, the objectivity (or lack thereof) of morality, and what moral character is. We also refer to moral psychology, and the replication crisis in Psychology, with particular emphasis on the literature from social psychology. We talk about thick concepts of virtue ethics, and the is-ought dichotomy. Finally, we address the situationist critique of virtue ethics, what we know about the effects of labelling, and how personality might play a role in different people being differentially susceptible to change. -- Follow Dr. Alfano’s work: Faculty page (Delft University): http://bit.ly/2ZhrLHO Faculty page (Australian Catholic University): http://bit.ly/2liH7Nw Personal website: http://bit.ly/2Y97OWr PhilPeople profile: http://bit.ly/2ml7mD5 ResearchGate profile: http://bit.ly/2kH8zUK Amazon profile: https://amzn.to/2kJorGk -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORDE, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, RICARDO VLADIMIRO, BO WINEGARD, JOHN CONNORS, ADAM KESSEL, VEGA GIDEY, CRAIG HEALY, OLAF ALEX, PHILIP KURIAN, JONATHAN VISSER, AND DAVID DIAS! A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, ROSEY, AND JIM FRANK!

------------------Support the channel------------ Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter</a> SubscribeStar: <a href="https://www.subscribestar.com/the-dissenter" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.subscribestar.com/the-dissenter</a> PayPal: <a href="http://paypal.me/thedissenter" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">paypal.me/thedissenter</a> PayPal Subscription 1 Dollar: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/yb3acuuy</a> PayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l</a> PayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz</a> PayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m</a> PayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao</a> ------------------Follow me on--------------------- Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/</a> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/TheDissenterYT</a> Anchor (podcast): <a href="https://anchor.fm/thedissenter" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://anchor.fm/thedissenter</a> Dr. Mark Alfano is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Delft University of Technology and the Australian Catholic University. Dr. Alfano uses tools and methods from philosophy and the sciences to explore topics in moral psychology, epistemology, and digital humanities. He studies how people become and remain virtuous, how values become integrated into people's lives, and how these virtues and values are (or fail to be) manifested in their perception, thoughts, feelings, deliberations, and behavior. One of the guiding themes of his work is that moral philosophy without psychological content is empty, but psychological investigation without philosophical insight is blind. He’s the author of books like Character as Moral Fiction, and Nietzsche's Moral Psychology. In this episode, we focus mostly of Dr. Alfano’s work on virtue ethics and moral character. We first get into issues regarding modern accounts of virtue ethics, the objectivity (or lack thereof) of morality, and what moral character is. We also refer to moral psychology, and the replication crisis in Psychology, with particular emphasis on the literature from social psychology. We talk about thick concepts of virtue ethics, and the is-ought dichotomy. Finally, we address the situationist critique of virtue ethics, what we know about the effects of labelling, and how personality might play a role in different people being differentially susceptible to change. -- Follow Dr. Alfano’s work: Faculty page (Delft University): <a href="http://bit.ly/2ZhrLHO" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2ZhrLHO</a> Faculty page (Australian Catholic University): <a href="http://bit.ly/2liH7Nw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2liH7Nw</a> Personal website: <a href="http://bit.ly/2Y97OWr" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2Y97OWr</a> PhilPeople profile: <a href="http://bit.ly/2ml7mD5" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2ml7mD5</a> ResearchGate profile: <a href="http://bit.ly/2kH8zUK" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2kH8zUK</a> Amazon profile: <a href="https://amzn.to/2kJorGk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://amzn.to/2kJorGk</a> -- A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORDE, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, BRIAN RIVERA, ADRIANO ANDRADE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, RICARDO VLADIMIRO, BO WINEGARD, JOHN CONNORS, ADAM KESSEL, VEGA GIDEY, CRAIG HEALY, OLAF ALEX, PHILIP KURIAN, JONATHAN VISSER, AND DAVID DIAS! A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, ROSEY, AND JIM FRANK!

#263 Mark Alfano: Virtue Ethics, And Moral Psychology

We live in confusing times. Politics is polarizing. Opinions clash on many topics leading to heated discussions. Take environmental change and what to do about it, the best ways to achieve prosperity, or the threats and opportunities of our globalized economy. Are we ready to admit that we often actually don’t understand what’s going on? Mark Alfano joins Igor and Charles to discuss the importance of ‘intellectual humility’ when seeking a more accurate grasp of reality, the perils of poorly designed virtue education programmes, Nietzsche and his take on the intellectual virtues, and the training of machine-learning algorithms to mine our digital footprints for signs of virtuous behaviour. Igor raises concerns that embracing uncertainty may hobble vital action, Mark talks of the dangers of creaking open your social media newsfeed too wide, and Charles learns that fostering contempt for oneself and one’s group may be essential on the path to truth. Welcome to Episode 21.Special Guest: Mark Alfano.Links:Mark Alfano's WebsiteI Know You Are, But What Am I?: Anti-Individualism in the Development of Intellectual Humility and Wu-Wei - Robinson &amp; Alfano (2016)Nietzsche's Moral Psychology : Mark Alfano (author) : 9781107074156 : Blackwell'sDevelopment and validation of a multidimensional measure of intellectual humility - Alfano et al (2017)A cross-cultural assessment of the semantic dimensions of intellectual humility - Christen, Alfano, Robinson (2017)How ‘Intellectual Humility’ Can Make You a Better Person -- Science of UsWisdom in Context - Igor Grossmann (2017)The Strengths of Wisdom Provide Unique Contributions to Improved Leadership, Sustainability, Inequality, Gross National Happiness, and Civic Discourse in the Face of Contemporary World Problems - Grossmann &amp; Brienza (2018)Wisdom, bias, and balance: Toward a process-sensitive measurement of wisdom-related cognition - Brienza, Kung, Santos, Bobocel, Grossmann (2018) — Preprint available at https://psyarxiv.com/p25c2Situation-Based Contingencies Underlying Wisdom-Content Manifestations: Examining Intellectual Humility in Daily Life | The Journals of Gerontology: Series B | Oxford Academic - Zachry, Phan, Blackie, Jayawickreme (2018)Constructing and Validating a Scale of Intellectual Humility @ The Intellectual Humility Capstone Conference (2015) - YouTubeOnline Personalization Creates Echo Chamber to Affirm Biases - The New York TimesAlessandra Tanesini – Philosopher, Sailor, Wine buffThe Puzzle of Humility and Disparity (2020) | Daniel Howard-Snyder, Dennis Whitcomb, and Heather Battaly - (2020)

We live in confusing times. Politics is polarizing. Opinions clash on many topics leading to heated discussions. Take environmental change and what to do about it, the best ways to achieve prosperity, or the threats and opportunities of our globalized economy. Are we ready to admit that we often actually don’t understand what’s going on? Mark Alfano joins Igor and Charles to discuss the importance of ‘intellectual humility’ when seeking a more accurate grasp of reality, the perils of poorly designed virtue education programmes, Nietzsche and his take on the intellectual virtues, and the training of machine-learning algorithms to mine our digital footprints for signs of virtuous behaviour. Igor raises concerns that embracing uncertainty may hobble vital action, Mark talks of the dangers of creaking open your social media newsfeed too wide, and Charles learns that fostering contempt for oneself and one’s group may be essential on the path to truth. Welcome to Episode 21.Special Guest: Mark Alfano.Links:<ul><li><a href="http://www.alfanophilosophy.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mark Alfano's Website</a></li><li><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312216413_I_Know_You_Are_But_What_Am_I_Anti-Individualism_in_the_Development_of_Intellectual_Humility_and_Wu-Wei" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">I Know You Are, But What Am I?: Anti-Individualism in the Development of Intellectual Humility and Wu-Wei - Robinson &amp; Alfano (2016)</a></li><li><a href="https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781107074156?gC=5a105e8b&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjw_OzrBRDmARIsAAIdQ_LY8oXsINPsXb3tdiRANC3tkSSX0l1YwqO9vt6jFajmw8_coNB4tUMaAp_9EALw_wcB" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nietzsche's Moral Psychology : Mark Alfano (author) : 9781107074156 : Blackwell's</a></li><li><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0182950&amp;type=printable" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Development and validation of a multidimensional measure of intellectual humility - Alfano et al (2017)</a></li><li><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322082695_A_cross-cultural_assessment_of_the_semantic_dimensions_of_intellectual_humility" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A cross-cultural assessment of the semantic dimensions of intellectual humility - Christen, Alfano, Robinson (2017)</a></li><li><a href="https://www.thecut.com/2017/02/how-intellectual-humility-can-make-you-a-better-person.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How ‘Intellectual Humility’ Can Make You a Better Person -- Science of Us</a></li><li><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691616672066" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wisdom in Context - Igor Grossmann (2017)</a></li><li><a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/6/2/22" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Strengths of Wisdom Provide Unique Contributions to Improved Leadership, Sustainability, Inequality, Gross National Happiness, and Civic Discourse in the Face of Contemporary World Problems - Grossmann &amp; Brienza (2018)</a></li><li><a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpspp0000171" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wisdom, bias, and balance: Toward a process-sensitive measurement of wisdom-related cognition - Brienza, Kung, Santos, Bobocel, Grossmann (2018)</a> — Preprint available at <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/p25c2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://psyarxiv.com/p25c2</a></li><li><a href="https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology/article/73/8/1404/4883184" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Situation-Based Contingencies Underlying Wisdom-Content Manifestations: Examining Intellectual Humility in Daily Life | The Journals of Gerontology: Series B | Oxford Academic - Zachry, Phan, Blackie, Jayawickreme (2018)</a></li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1764&amp;v=9NWWLM2JCS8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Constructing and Validating a Scale of Intellectual Humility @ The Intellectual Humility Capstone Conference (2015) - YouTube</a></li><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/technology/29stream.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Online Personalization Creates Echo Chamber to Affirm Biases - The New York Times</a></li><li><a href="https://tanesini.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Alessandra Tanesini – Philosopher, Sailor, Wine buff</a></li><li><a href="https://www.academia.edu/38727602/The_Puzzle_of_Humility_and_Disparity_2020_" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Puzzle of Humility and Disparity (2020) | Daniel Howard-Snyder, Dennis Whitcomb, and Heather Battaly - (2020)</a></li></ul>

21: The Art and Science of Knowing You Don't Know (with Mark Alfano)

According to a longstanding tradition in ethical theory, the primary subject of moral evaluation is the person, or, more specifically, the person’s character.  Aristotle stands at the head of this tradition, and he held that moral theory must take as its center a theory of the good man; he hence devised an elaborate conception of the virtues–those dispositions and traits constitutive of the good life for human beings.  Virtue ethics thrives to this day.  In fact, virtue theorizing has been applied to other normative domains, including especially epistemology.In Character as Moral Fiction (Cambridge University Press, 2013), Mark Alfano investigates the ways in which virtue ethics and epistemology are affected by recent results from behavioral sciences that call into question the idea that humans sustain stable and robust character traits.  Drawing on a range of empirical data, Alfano suggests a reinterpretation of the virtues.  Rather than seeing them as steady and fixed dispositions to act across a broad range of situations, Alfano argues that virtue attributions be seen more as self-fulfilling prophecies: when we properly attribute courage to a person, we heighten her tendency to behave in courageous ways.  Alfano then extends this account to the intellectual virtues discussed by virtue epistemologists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/philosophy

According to a longstanding tradition in ethical theory, the primary subject of moral evaluation is the person, or, more specifically, the person’s character.  Aristotle stands at the head of this tradition, and he held that moral theory must take as its center a theory of the good man; he hence devised an elaborate conception of the virtues–those dispositions and traits constitutive of the good life for human beings.  Virtue ethics thrives to this day.  In fact, virtue theorizing has been applied to other normative domains, including especially epistemology. In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1107026725/?tag=newbooinhis-20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Character as Moral Fiction</a> (Cambridge University Press, 2013), <a href="http://philosophy.uoregon.edu/profile/alfano/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mark Alfano</a> investigates the ways in which virtue ethics and epistemology are affected by recent results from behavioral sciences that call into question the idea that humans sustain stable and robust character traits.  Drawing on a range of empirical data, Alfano suggests a reinterpretation of the virtues.  Rather than seeing them as steady and fixed dispositions to act across a broad range of situations, Alfano argues that virtue attributions be seen more as self-fulfilling prophecies: when we properly attribute courage to a person, we heighten her tendency to behave in courageous ways.  Alfano then extends this account to the intellectual virtues discussed by virtue epistemologists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>Support our show by becoming a premium member! <a href="https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/philosophy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/philosophy</a>

Mark Alfano, “Character as Moral Fiction” (Cambridge UP, 2013)