Some Virtues Become Vices When Too Many People Possess Them (guest post)
“If individual vices can be virtuous from the perspective of a group, is the inverse also true? Does this mean that virtues, in some cases, can be vices in the context of group behavior?” That’s the subject taken up by Mandi Astola (Delft), Steven Bland (Huron), and Mark Alfano (Macquarie) in the following guest post. The post is based on a recent article of theirs, “Mandevillian Vices“, published in Synthese. This is the sixth in a series of guest posts by different authors at Daily Nous this summer. (Posts in this series will remain pinned to the top of the homepage for several days following initial publication.) Some Virtues Become Vices When Too Many People Possess Them by Mandi Astola, Steven Bland, and Mark Alfano In Ghost in the Shell, the protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi is asked to justify why she involves a normal human in her mission, rather than a powerful cyborg with superhuman capabilities. She replies: “If we all reacted the same way, we’d be predictable, and there’s always more than one way to view a situation. What’s true for the group is also true for the individual. It’s simple: overspecialize, and you breed in weakness. It’s slow death.” Cyborgs are stronger, more resilient, better fighters and better investigators than regular humans. However, if all the members of the crew are strong, resilient, and skilled in the same way, then the members are all similar in that way and diversity is diminished. Many of us accept that diversity in gender, ethnicity, background and experience is generally a good thing for many groups. Many of us also accept that diversity of opinions is good. A “marketplace of ideas” is more likely to be interesting and fun, more likely to cater to the needs of different people and less likely to result in polarization and staleness, and, like Motoko Kusanaki says, vulnerability to attack and exploitation. These types of diversity are all positive. But what about diversity in virtuousness? Might it also be better to have people with different sets of virtues and vices? And does this mean that even vicious character traits can add value to collective reasoning by increasing diversity? Are there reasons to think that we should resist trying..
The post https://dailynous.com/2024/07/30/some-virtues-become-vices-when-too-many-people-possess-them-guest-post/
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https://dailynous.com/2024/07/30/some-virtues-become-vices-when-too-many-people-possess-them-guest-post/
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2024-07-30 11:43:02
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"content": "Some Virtues Become Vices When Too Many People Possess Them (guest post)\n\n“If individual vices can be virtuous from the perspective of a group, is the inverse also true? Does this mean that virtues, in some cases, can be vices in the context of group behavior?” That’s the subject taken up by Mandi Astola (Delft), Steven Bland (Huron), and Mark Alfano (Macquarie) in the following guest post. The post is based on a recent article of theirs, “Mandevillian Vices“, published in Synthese. This is the sixth in a series of guest posts by different authors at Daily Nous this summer. (Posts in this series will remain pinned to the top of the homepage for several days following initial publication.) Some Virtues Become Vices When Too Many People Possess Them by Mandi Astola, Steven Bland, and Mark Alfano In Ghost in the Shell, the protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi is asked to justify why she involves a normal human in her mission, rather than a powerful cyborg with superhuman capabilities. She replies: “If we all reacted the same way, we’d be predictable, and there’s always more than one way to view a situation. What’s true for the group is also true for the individual. It’s simple: overspecialize, and you breed in weakness. It’s slow death.” Cyborgs are stronger, more resilient, better fighters and better investigators than regular humans. However, if all the members of the crew are strong, resilient, and skilled in the same way, then the members are all similar in that way and diversity is diminished. Many of us accept that diversity in gender, ethnicity, background and experience is generally a good thing for many groups. Many of us also accept that diversity of opinions is good. A “marketplace of ideas” is more likely to be interesting and fun, more likely to cater to the needs of different people and less likely to result in polarization and staleness, and, like Motoko Kusanaki says, vulnerability to attack and exploitation. These types of diversity are all positive. But what about diversity in virtuousness? Might it also be better to have people with different sets of virtues and vices? And does this mean that even vicious character traits can add value to collective reasoning by increasing diversity? Are there reasons to think that we should resist trying..\nThe post https://dailynous.com/2024/07/30/some-virtues-become-vices-when-too-many-people-possess-them-guest-post/\n.\n\nhttps://dailynous.com/2024/07/30/some-virtues-become-vices-when-too-many-people-possess-them-guest-post/",
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