Virtue and Character

The Project

Virtue and Character are currently the focus of extensive international philosophical and psychological research, as well as being introduced as themes in educational formation at different levels from primary/elementary schooling through to professional training in business, health care, policing and the military. From a philosophical point of view these features raise a number of conceptual, normative and philosophical-historical questions:

• What is character? Is it something real and enduring or a figment of folk-psychology? If it is real to what extent is its development within the power of an agent, or open to the influence of others?
• J.S. Mill wrote “It matters not only what men do but what manner of men they are that do it”. How important is character as an element in moral theory and in practical ethics?
• What is virtue? Is it a real feature of agents or a notion left over from earlier theories of human nature? What is the relation between judgements of moral dispositions and judgements of actions, and evaluations of intended and forseen outcomes?
• What in general is the relationship between familiar descriptions of moral motivation and action and theoretical accounts of psychology?
• What is the place of assessments of character and virtue in evaluation of public figures, politicians, policy-makers, role-models, service providers, etc?

People

St Andrews Staff:

• Margaret Hampson (St Andrews: Philosophy), Project Leader
• John Haldane (St Andrews: Philosophy; Birmingham: Centre for Character and Virtue; Baylor: Philosophy)
• Jens Timmermann (St Andrews Philosophy)

Postgraduates and Undergraduate students:

• Annie Waters (St Andrews & Stirling, PhD – Present, MLitt 23-24/MPhil 24-25) – working on Aristotle on shame and moral development.

Recent graduates:

• Dr I Xuan Chong (St Andrews & Stirling, PhD 2023) – thesis on ‘The Unity of the Virtues in Plato and Aristotle’.

Affiliates:

• Candace Vogler (Chicago: Philosophy)
• David Carr (Birmingham: Centre for Character and Virtue)
• Kristjan Kristjansson (Birmingham: Centre for Character and Virtue)
• Michael Beaty (Philosophy: Baylor University)
• Anthony O’Hear (Buckingham: Education; Royal Institute of Philosophy)
• Rowan Cruft (Stirling Philosophy)
• Ben Colburn (Glasgow Philosophy)

Recent Developments

Internal Events:

• November 3^rd 2026: A talk on Aristotle’s Ethics by David Bronstein (Notre Dame Sydney)
• St Andrews Greek Reading Group (25-26, 26-27) Reading Plotinus Enneaeds on Virtue; 23-24, 24-25 Reading Plato’s Republic Books 8-9.

Members participating in external events:

• Margaret Hampson organised, with Fiona Leigh and Elena Cagnoli (UCL) the Eleventh Keeling Colloquium on Plato on Learning to be Good: Early Dialogues and Republic September 2026 
• Margaret Hampson presented a paper ‘Magnificence in the Nicomachean and Eudemian Ethics’ at a conference on Virtue in Aristotle at KCL in April 2024 and The Virtues of Character in Aristotle’s Ethics at Venice in December 2025
• Margaret Hampson is an invited participant at ‘AristotleFest 2024’ at Notre Dame Australia AristotleFest includes:
  • Conference — Becoming Good: Virtue & Moral Development in Ancient Ethics (August 1-2, 2024)
  • Masterclass — Notre Dame Winter School on Aristotle’s Ethics (August 5-7, 2024)

Publications

Work in Progress:

• John Haldane ‘Flourishing as an aim of Education’.
• John Haldane ‘Opportunities and Challenges surrounding Education’.
• John Haldane ‘Pluralism, the Public Good and the Common Good’.
• John Haldance ‘Virtuous Leadership’.
• John Haldane ‘Understanding Human Nature’.
• John Haldane ‘Taking History (and Philosophy) Seriously’
• A collection edited by David Carr, James Arthur & Kristjan Kristjansson entitled Varieties of Virtue Ethics (forthcoming from Palgrave MacMillan) with contributions from Haldane, Carr, Kristjansson and Vogler.
• Meeting between representatives of CEPPA, Birmingham 

Recent and Forthcoming:

• Margaret Hampson, ‘Re-Reading NE 2.4, Again: A Reply to Kamtekar’, Australasian Philosophical Review,
• Margaret Hampson, ‘Desire in Classical Philosophy’, in The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Desire,
• Margaret Hampson, ‘On Magnificence’, MIND,
• Margaret Hampson, ‘Vice in Ancient Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle on Moral Ignorance and Corruption of Character by Karen Margarethe Nielsen’, Journal of the History of Philosophy,
• John Haldane ‘Whither Moral Philosophy’ in R. Hain ed, Virtue, Medicine, and Modern Moral Philosophy (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, forthcoming).
•  ‘Australia seen through a Philosophical Lens’ in P. Kurti ed. Beneath the Southern Cross: Looking for Australia in the 21^st century (forthcoming)
• John Haldane ‘Education towards a Reasonable Humanism’ Philosophical Investigations, 48, 2025
• John Haldane ‘Flourishing as a aim of Education: Some Challenges ’ British Journal of Educational Studies, 73, 2025.
• John Haldane ‘Virtuous Leadership: Ambiguities, Challenges & Precedents’ Metaphilosophy, 55, 2024.
• I Xuan Chong, ‘Wisdom, Political Expertise, and Unity of the Virtues in Aristotle’ in Phronesis (Published online ahead of print https://doi.org/10.1163/15685284-bja10098)
• Margaret Hampson. ‘The Tyrant and the Failure of Philia: Re-reading the Account of the Tyrannical Character’. In M.M. McCabe ed. Rereading Plato’s Republic. Edinburgh (2025).
• John Haldane ‘Virtue and the Art of Teaching Art’ British Journal of Educational Studies, 72, 2024.
• Ben Sachs-Cobbe ‘ The conservatism objection to educating for the virtues of citizenship’ in Theory and Research in Education, Volume 21, Issue 2, 2023.
• Margaret Hampson. 2023. ‘Aristotle on Shame and Learning to be Good by Marta Jimenez’, Mind, Volume 132, Issue 526, 523–531.
• Fiona Leigh and Margaret Hampson (eds). Psychology and Value: The Ninth Keeling Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy. Oxford, 2022.
• Margaret Hampson. 2022. ‘Aristotle on the nature of ethos and ethismos’. In J. Dunham and K. Romdenh-Romuluc eds. Habit and the History of Philosophy. Routledge, 37-50.
• Margaret Hampson. 2022. ‘The Learner’s Motivation and the Structure of Habituation in Aristotle’. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 104 (3), 415-447.
• John Haldane ‘Anscombe and Aquinas’ in R. Teichmann ed. The Oxford Handbook of Elizabeth Anscombe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).
• John Haldane ‘Knowledge of Oneself and of Others’ Philosophical Investigations, 45, (2022).
• John Haldane ‘Philosophy in Relation to other Disciplines exploring Human Nature’ Metaphilosophy 53 (2022).
• John Haldane ‘Educating Character in Philosophical Perspective’ in L. D’Olimpio, P. Paris. and A. Thompson, eds. Educating Character through the Arts (London: Routledge, 2022)
• Margaret Hampson. 2021. ‘Aristotle on the Necessity of Habituation: Re-reading Nicomachean Ethics 2.4’. Phronesis 66 (1), 1-26.
• John Haldane ‘Anscombe: Life, Action and Ethics in Context’ Philosophical News, (2020).
• John Haldane ‘Late 20th-Century Reception of Aquinas in Analytical Philosophy’ M. Levering ed. The Reception of Aquinas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).
• John Haldane ‘Alasdair MacIntyre, Philosophy and the University’ in R. Barnett & A. Fulford eds, Philosophers on the University (New York: Springer, 2020).
• John Haldane ‘A Philosopher of Singular Style’ in A. O’Hear ed. Four Philosophers: Anscombe, Foot, Midgley, Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
• Margaret Hampson. 2019. ‘Imitating Virtue’, Phronesis 64 (3), 292-320.
• John Haldane ‘Evolution, Education and Wisdom’ in D. Davis ed, Educating for Wisdom in the 21^st Century (South Bend, IN.: St Augustine Press, 2019).
• John Haldane ‘Some Questions about Virtue’ in Elisa Grimi ed, Virtue Ethics: Retrospect and Prospect (New York: Springer, 2019).
• John Haldane ‘Responding to Discord’ in James Arthur ed, Virtues in the Public Sphere: Citizenship, Civic Friendship, and Duty (London: Routledge, 2019).
• John Haldane ‘Virtue Ethics in the Medieval Period’ in Carr et al. eds, Varieties of Virtue Ethics (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016).

Teaching

P5201 Classical Philosophy: Aristotle’s Moral Psychology and Virtue Ethics (Autumn 2026) (Margaret Hampson & Jason Carter)

PY4679 Plato’s Dialogues (Spring 2026, next running 2027-8) (Margaret Hampson & Jason Carter)

P4611 Classical Philosophy: Aristotle’s Moral Psychology and Virtue Ethics (Spring 2024, next running 2027-8) (Margaret Hampson)

PY4620 Virtue and Vice (Spring 2025, next running 28-29) (Margaret Hampson and Mara van der Lugt)

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