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Dr Christine Swanton Department of Philosophy, Auckland will deliver a paper entitled:
Virtue Ethics, The Counsel of Rogues?, and the role ethics dilemma
Associate Professor Tim Dare will provide a reply
Time: 5.00pm. Tuesday 11 June, 2013
Venue: Small Lecture Theatre, Law School, University of Auckland.
Abstract:
The development of ‘virtue jurisprudence’ (a neo- Aristotelian virtue ethics for law) has become an important strand of legal ethics. However in his recent book The Counsel of Rogues?, Tim Dare argues that virtue jurisprudence cannot account for “robust” role differentiation. In response, I argue that a form of virtue ethics can account for two features:
(a) There is robust role differentiation i.e. role differentiation as conceived by the Standard Conception of law (see handout).
(b) Occupiers of legal roles are not permitted to act immorally (except perhaps in “tragic” dilemmas).
Dare’s criticism may be true where virtue ethics is conceived in ‘orthodox’ neo-Aristotelian terms. I reject this version of virtue ethics and offer a version which can accommodate (a) and (b) above.
Dr Swanton is currently working on the virtue ethics of Hume and Nietzsche, a virtue ethical view of love, and a virtue ethical theory of role ethics. Her book Virtue Ethics: A Pluralistic View was published with Oxford University Press 2003.
Associate Professor Dare is the author of The Counsel of Rogues? A Defence of the Standard Conception of the Lawyer’s Role (2009). Current projects include a review of Ronald Dworkin’s philosophy of law and an ethical analysis of a child maltreatment prediction tool for New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Welfare. He is also chipping away at a 3-5 year project on roles and morality.
All are welcome to attend
