Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:01:28.570Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

No Character or Personality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Abstract:

Solomon argues that, although recent research in social psychology has important implications for business ethics, it does not undermine an approach that stresses virtue ethics. However, he underestimates the empirical threat to virtue ethics, and his a priori claim that empirical research cannot overturn our ordinary moral psychology is overstated. His appeal to seemingly obvious differences in character traits between people simply illustrates the fundamental attribution error. His suggestion that the Milgram and Darley and Batson experiments have to do with such character traits as obedience and punctuality cannot help to explain the relevant differences in the way people behave in different situations. His appeal to personality theory fails, because, as an intellectual academic discipline, personality theory is in shambles, mainly because it has been concerned with conceptions of personality rather than with what is true about personality. Solomon’s rejection of Doris’s claims about the fragmentation of character is at odds with the received view in social psychology. Finally, he is mistaken to think that rejecting virtue ethics implies rejecting free will and moral responsibility.

Type
Response Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Darley, J. M. 1973. “From Jerusalem to Jericho: A Study of Situational and Dispositional Variables in Helping Behavior.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 27: 1008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennett, D. C. 1981. Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doris, J. 2002. Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behavior. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fodor, J. A. 1975. The Language of Thought. New York: Thomas Crowell.Google Scholar
Fodor, J. A. 1987. Psychosemantics: The Problem of Meaning in the Philosophy of Mind. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Funder, D. C. 2001. “Personality.” Annual Review of Psychology 52: 197221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilovich, T. 1993. How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Harman, G. 1998–99. “Moral Philosophy Meets Social Psychology: Virtue Ethics and the Fundamental Attribution Error.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 99: 31531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harman, G. 1999–2000. “The Nonexistence of Character Traits.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 100: 2236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isen, A. M., and Levin, P. F. 1972. “Effect of Feeling Good on Helping: Cookies and Kindness.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 21: 3848.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kunda, Z. 1999. Social Cognition: Making Sense of People. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latané, B., and Darley, J. M. 1970. The Unresponsive Bystander: Why Doesn’t He Help? New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Merritt, M. 2000. “Virtue Ethics and Situationist Personality Psychology.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 3: 36583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milgram, S. 1974. Obedience to Authority. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Miller, G. A., and Cantor, N. 1982. Review of Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment. In Social Cognition 1: 8393.Google Scholar
Nisbett, R. 1998. “Essence and Accident.” In Attribution and Social Interaction: The Legacy of Edward E. Jones, ed. Darley, J. M. and Cooper, J.Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Solomon, R. 2003. “Victims of Circumstances? A Defense of Virtue Ethics in Business.” Business Ethics Quarterly 13(1): 4362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar