7th Annual Conference

Phronesis, Virtues, and Meta-Virtues
​Genova, September 20-22, 2023


​Constant updates available on the conference website!

Under the auspices of the Northwestern Italy Consortium for PhD Program in Philosophy (FINO) and the Italian Society for Moral Philosophy (SIFM)

University of Genova, Italy
September 20-22, 2023
Aula Magna of the School of Humanities
Via Balbi 2, Genova
 
Description
 
Aristotelian virtue ethics offers a classic answer to how to lead an ethical life, manage conflicts and act wisely: that is, by cultivating a virtuous character. Standard versions of this approach keep holding to a traditional paradigm, which “splits” the development of virtuous character in two distinct trainings: (i) the cultivation of educated emotions, from which different ethical virtues spring; (ii) the development of phronesis (practical wisdom), a meta-virtue which harmonizes the different ethical virtues and detects the correct actions to be performed in each situation. Research on phronesis is particularly fertile today, with many new accounts emerging as to its nature and empirical plausibility. However, seldom if ever the very idea of a meta-virtue, both with respect to phronesis and to other possible candidates to the role, is explicitly addressed. Very broadly, a meta-virtue could be defined as an ethical, epistemic, or civic higher-order virtue that has a special status with respect to character in general or some applied fields. The purpose of this conference is to fill this gap, by investigating the status of meta-virtues and identifying potential meta-virtues alternative to phronesis. Despite the focus on phronesis and meta-virtues, contributions on a broader range of issues in virtue ethics will be also welcome (see list of possible topics below).



Confirmed keynote speakers:
Kristján Kristjánsson (Jubilee Center for Character and Virtues, University of Birmingham)
Glen Pettigrove (University of Glasgow)
Patrick L. Plaisance (Donald P. Belisario College of Communication, Penn State University)
Maria Silvia Vaccarezza (Aretai Center on Virtues, University of Genova)
 
 
With the aim of including as many contributions as possible, the conference will be structured around plenary sessions and parallel sessions with the contributed papers selected by double blind review. The contributed papers should last 30 minutes (presentation + discussion). Abstracts of about 500 words (references included), prepared for blind refereeing, should be sent as email attachments to aretaicenter@gmail.com
 
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • The nature of phronesis, and/or its psychological translatability
  • The relation between phronesis and the ethical virtues
  • Other candidates to the status of meta-virtues, such as: curiosity, integrity, responsibility, respect, reasonableness, and their place in a theory of virtue
  • Epistemic meta-virtues
  • Civic meta-virtues
  • Meta-virtues in non-Aristotelian traditions
  • Character education, virtues, and meta-virtues
  • Applications of meta-virtues to specific fields, including (but not limited to) professional ethics, media ethics, environmental ethics, ethics of AI.

Scientific Committee:


Sofia Bonicalzi (Rome 3 University - CVBE, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
Angelo Campodonico (University of Genoa)
Michel Croce (University of Genoa)
Mario De Caro (Rome 3 University – Tufts University)
Mirko Garasic (Rome 3 University)
Michele Mangini (University of Bari)
Claudia Navarini (European University, Rome)

Organizing Comittee:
Federico Bina, Matilde Liberti, Chiara Palazzolo, Elena Ricci
 
 
Important Dates:
Deadline for submissions: April 1, 2023
Communication of acceptance: May 1, 2023
Accepted abstracts will be available online before the conference.
For further information, please contact: aretaicenter@gmail.com
 
 
Participation in the conference will require registration and payment of the conference fee.
 
The language of the conference is English.
 
 
The conference is part of the 2-year curiosity driven project PRACTICE – PRACTical wisdom as EthICal Expertise, funded by the University of Genova & the European Union – NextGenerationEU (PI: Maria Silvia Vaccarezza)