Lack of Character: Personality and Moral Behavior

This book is a provocative contribution to contemporary ethical theory challenging foundational conceptions of character that date back to Aristotle. John Doris draws on behavioral science, especially social psychology, to argue that we misattribute the causes of behavior to personality traits and other fixed aspects of character rather than to the situational context. More often than not it is the situation not the nature of the personality that really counts. The author elaborates the philosophical consequences of this research for a whole array of ethical theories and shows that, once rid of the misleading conception of motivation, moral psychology can support more robust ethical theories and more humane ethical practices.

• Challenges foundational conception of ‘stable moral character’ that has shaped all moral psychology and ethical theory • Potential cross-disciplinary interest

Preface: a renaissance of virtue; 1. Joining the hunt; 2. Character and consistency; 3. Moral character, moral behavior; 4. The fragmentation of character; 5. Judging character; 6. From psychology to ethics; 7. Situation and responsibility; 8. Is there anything to be ashamed of?

‘Doris is exploring, and taking the lead in creating, a field of ‘empirically informed ethics’. He has paid close, careful, imaginative attention to psychological studies that turn out to have relevance to questions of the determinants of moral behavior, and has extracted the implications of those studies for the theories that he has also mastered, philosophical accounts of moral character, reasoning, and the production of moral actions. This is a book that will provide impetus to the formerly flagging conversation between those concerned with what is and what ought to be in the domain of morality.’

– John M. Darley, Dorman T. Warren Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton University

‘Lack of Character is a very important book both for psychologists and philosophers. It presents the best summary available of the psychological literature documenting the typically weak effects of personality on moral behavior and the massive effects that situations can have. The book also presents a powerful case against ‘virtue ethics’, which assumes that people act morally to the degree that they have certain dispositions.’

– Richard E. Nisbett, Theodore M. Newcomb Distinguished University Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan