Virtue versus Piety

The Piety of Escape

This paper examines two seemingly contradictory views of piety found in Plato’s Euthyphro and Crito. Using the Socratic dialogues for evidence of what Socrates actually believed and to piece together a Socratic account of piety, it seems that his argument in favor of remaining in prison is inconsistent with his own beliefs. The paper concludes that Socrates ought not to have thought it was impi...

Healing Virtue: Saludadores versus Witches in Early Modern Spain

Said one devil: ‘‘To see good people, look at the saludadores, who . . . claim they do possess virtue.’’ They took offence and said that it was true that they possessed it. And to this replied [another] devil: ‘‘How can it be that virtue is found in wanderers who do naught but blow?’’ The absence of any clear dividing line between the fields of medicine and religion in early modern Spain become...

Filial Piety in Early Buddhism

Buddhist scholars like Kenneth Ch’en thought that filial piety was a special feature of Chinese Buddhism. Later, John Strong employed “popular Buddhist stories” to show that filial piety was also important in Indian Buddhism, but he asserted that it was “a Buddhist compromise with the Brāhmanical ethics of filiality operating at the popular level.” On the other hand, Gregory Schopen, who mainly...

Talking Virtue: professionalism and virtue ethics

The twentieth century phenomenon of professionalism had a major impact on the economy of nation states and has been recognised as a key element of post-industrial societies. As an anointed class, professionals reserved the right to prescribe their own roles and responsibilities. Critics of professional interests, however, have described professionals’ own definition of their roles and responsib...

Sacred Space and Sublime Sacramental Piety