Minding the Gap

Moral Ideals and Moral Improvement

Karen Stohr

Tackles the relationship between morality and social conventions
Deals with specific social conventions and practices familiar to all, but not often written about
Introduces the novel concept of the "moral neighborhood"
Draws on psychology, sociology, and literature to enrich philosophical arguments

Minding the Gap

Moral Ideals and Moral Improvement

Karen Stohr

Description

Most of us care about being a good person. Most of us also recognize that we fall far short of our morals aspirations, that there is a gap between what we are like and what we think we should be like. The aim of moral improvement is to narrow that gap. And yet as a practical undertaking, moral improvement is beset by difficulties. We are not very good judges of what we are like and we are often unclear about what it would mean to be better. This book aims to give an honest account of moral improvement that takes seriously the challenges that we encounter--the practical and philosophical--in trying to make ourselves morally better.

Ethical theories routinely present us with accounts of ideal moral agents that we are supposed to emulate. These accounts, however, often lack normative authority for us and they may also fail to provide us with adequate guidance about how to live in our flawed moral reality. Stohr presents moral improvement as a project for non-ideal persons living in non-ideal circumstances. An adequate account of moral improvement must have psychologically plausible starting points and rely on ideals that are normatively authoritative and regulatively efficacious for the person trying to emulate them. Moral improvement should be understood as the project of articulating and inhabiting an aspirational moral identity. That identity is cultivated through existing practical identities and standpoints, which are fundamentally social and which generate practical conflicts about how to live. The success of moral improvement depends on it taking place within what she calls good "moral neighborhoods." Moral neighborhoods are collaborative normative spaces, constructed from networks of social practices and conventions, in which we can articulate and act as better versions of ourselves. The book concludes with a discussion of three social practices that contribute to good moral neighborhoods, and so to moral improvement.

Minding the Gap

Moral Ideals and Moral Improvement

Karen Stohr

Introduction
Chapter 1: The Gap
Chapter 2: Where We Stand
Chapter 3: Moral Identities
Chapter 4: Moral Aspirations
Chapter 5: Moral Neighborhoods
Chapter 6: Moral Stagecraft
Chapter 7: Social Pretense
Chapter 8: Self-Deprecation
Chapter 9: Being Agreeable
Chapter 10: The Veil of Philanthropy
Conclusion
Bibliography

Minding the Gap

Moral Ideals and Moral Improvement

Karen Stohr

Author Information

Karen Stohr is the Ryan Family Term Associate Professor of Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy at Georgetown University and Senior Research Scholar in Georgetown's Kennedy Institute of Ethics. She works primarily in normative ethical theory, focusing on Aristotelian virtue ethics and Kantian ethics. She also writes on the ethical dimensions of civility, manners, and social interactions. She is author of On Manners (Routledge, 2011).

Minding the Gap

Moral Ideals and Moral Improvement

Karen Stohr

Reviews and Awards

"In this innovative book, Karen Stohr breaks new ground in understanding how we develop our moral ideals and set about the task of moral improvement. Her fascinating account includes explorations of the obstacles to moral improvement, moral identity, the development of aspirational ideals, the social aspects of moral improvement through the construction of moral neighborhoods, and the related notions of moral stagecraft and moral pretense. In formulating her ideas, she draws on Aristotle, Kant, Confucianism, Jane Austen, and Erving Goffman, among other sources ... Stohr's book is a major contribution to philosophical thinking about moral formation." -- Nancy Snow , Director and Professor of Philosophy, University of Oklahoma

"In Stohr's excellent new book, self improvement turns out to be a largely social practice. She defends this view by appeal to some of the usual suspects in moral philosophy, but also to social science research, great works of literature, and a larger host of women and feminist philosophers than one usually sees discussed. The result is an engaging and insightful work of normative theory full of wisdom and nuance." -- Valerie Tiberius, Professor of Philosophy, University of Minnesota

"Karen Stohr offers a nuanced and sophisticated approach to a philosophically under-appreciated aspect of moral life: trying to be better than you are. Stohr offers nuanced analysis of the enriching complexities of daily life and social interaction, making clear how moral improvement for me will need cooperation and community with others. Stohr's account exemplifies both sense and sensibility, with both careful argument in defense of moral aspiration and a close eye on how the atmospherics of our "moral neighborhoods" inflect our moral possibilities." -- Amy Olberding, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oklahoma