Talbot Brewer
{{short description|American philosopher}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region = Western philosophy
|era = 21st-century philosophy
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|image = Talbot Brewer.jpg
|name = Talbot Brewer
|birth_date =
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|school_tradition = Analytic
| institutions = University of Virginia
|main_interests = ethical theory, moral psychology
| thesis_title = Character, Desire and Moral Commitment
| thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/openview/6d75f074f4c3c99a73fc004e90f9dd05/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
| thesis_year = 1998
| doctoral_advisor = Thomas M. Scanlon
| academic_advisors = Christine Korsgaard
Stanley Cavell
John Rawls
Fred Neuhouser
Richard Moran
|notable_ideas = dialectical activity
| spouse =
| education = Harvard University (PhD), Tufts University (MA)
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}}
Talbot Brewer is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia. He is known for his works on moral philosophy.{{cite web |title=Talbot Brewer |url=https://philosophy.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/tmb2n |website=Corcoran Department of Philosophy}}{{cite web |title=Talbot Brewer |url=https://hedgehogreview.com/contributors/talbot-brewer |website=The Hedgehog Review}}{{cite journal |last1=Cokelet |first1=Bradford |title=Review of The Retrieval of Ethics |journal=Analysis |date=2011 |volume=71 |issue=1 |pages=193–195 |doi=10.1093/analys/anq098 |jstor=41237296 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41237296 |issn=0003-2638|url-access=subscription }}{{cite journal |last1=Schapiro |first1=Tamar |title=The Retrieval of Ethics |journal=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews |date=8 December 2009 |url=https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/the-retrieval-of-ethics/ |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Angier |first1=Tom |title=The Retrieval of Ethics - Talbot Brewer: Book Reviews |journal=The Philosophical Quarterly |date=October 2010 |volume=60 |issue=241 |pages=884–886 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9213.2010.673_12.x|url=https://philpapers.org/rec/ANGTRO-2 }}{{cite journal |last1=Merritt |first1=Melissa |title=Virtue as a Skill |journal=Kant on Reflection and Virtue |date=2018 |pages=159–183 |doi=10.1017/9781108344005.009|isbn=9781108344005 }}
{{cite journal |last1=Baertschi |first1=Bernard |title=Talbot B REWER . The Retrieval of Ethics . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 344 pp. |journal=Ethical Perspectives |date=2010 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=134–136 |url=https://www.ethical-perspectives.be/page.php?FILE=ep_issue&ID=1238}}
{{cite web |last1=Carson |first1=Nathan P. |title=Appreciation: Its Nature and Role in Virtue Ethical Moral Psychology and Dialectical Moral Agency |url=https://baylor-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/2104/8733/Nathan_Carson_phd.pdf?sequence=1 |publisher=Baylor University}}{{cite journal |last1=Carson |first1=Nathan P. |title=Review of The Retrieval of Ethics |journal=The Review of Metaphysics |date=2010 |volume=64 |issue=1 |pages=133–135 |jstor=29765347 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29765347 |issn=0034-6632}}{{cite journal |last1=Corbí |first1=Josep E. |title=Agency in the Space of Reasons |journal=Corbí, J. E. 2021, 'Agency in the Space of Reasons. A Comment on *The Castle*' in Koblízek, T. And Kotátko, P. *Lessons from Kafka*. Prague: Filosofia, Pp.113-140 |year=2021 |url=https://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/81231?show=full}}
Philosophy
Brewer is known for his idea of "dialectical activity," arguing that contemporary moral philosophy is hindered by a production-oriented conception of human agency and action. He tries to retrieve a different "dialectical" conception of human agency drawing on classical moral philosophy (mainly Aristotle). He believes that our ritual activities show our presence in and to the world. Christopher Cordner provided a criticism of Brewer's idea and argued that this picture of ritual activities is not fully recognised in the dialectical conception of human agency.{{cite journal |last1=Cordner |first1=Christopher |title=Dialectical Activity, Ritual, and Value: A Critique of Talbot Brewer: Philosophical Investigations |journal=Philosophical Investigations |date=April 2016 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=178–191 |doi=10.1111/phin.12080}}
Lorraine Besser-Jones argues that Brewer's idea of human agency is incompatible with empirical evidence on motivation and concludes that proposing the good life as a unified dialectical activity is implausible.{{cite journal |last1=Besser-Jones |first1=Lorraine |title=Drawn to the Good? Brewer on Dialectical Activity |journal=Journal of Moral Philosophy |date=1 January 2011 |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=621–631 |doi=10.1163/174552411X592194|s2cid=144290108 }}
Mark LeBar describes Brewer's work as saving moral philosophy from "the grip of bad questions and worse answers" and calls it an "ambitious aim."{{cite journal |last1=LeBar |first1=Mark |title=Talbot Brewer, The Retrieval of Ethics |journal=Ethics |date=1 July 2012 |volume=122 |issue=4 |pages=797–801 |doi=10.1086/666535 |issn=0014-1704}}
In her book Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming, Agnes Callard (from the University of Chicago) proposes her aspirational theory of morality and distinguishes it from Brewer's dialectical theory.{{cite book |last1=Callard |first1=Agnes |title=Aspiration : the agency of becoming |date=2018 |isbn=9780190639488 |pages=223–228}}
Jon Garthoff (from the University of Tennessee) proposes a “dynamic approximation” model of virtues based on Brewer’s dialectical idea of virtue acquisition and Rawl's theory of justice. In this model, emphasis and focus on a value gradually enables more engagement with it and more acknowledgement of it.{{cite journal |last1=Garthoff |first1=Jon |title=The Dialectical Activity of Becoming Just |journal=Justice |date=23 August 2018 |volume=1 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780190631741.003.0008 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190631741.003.0008 |publisher=Oxford University Press|url-access=subscription }}
In a paper on teleological hospitality, Melissa Fitzpatrick (from Boston College) provides a critical interpretation of Brewer's work and argues that a crucial component of human flourishing is hospitality towards others.{{cite journal |last1=Fitzpatrick |first1=Melissa |title=7 Teleological Hospitality The Case of Con temporary Virtue Ethics |journal=Radical Hospitality |date=2 March 2021 |pages=88–96 |doi=10.1515/9780823294442-008|isbn=9780823294442 |s2cid=233851112 }}
Christopher Bennett (from the University of Sheffield) uses Brewer's idea of dialectical activity to provide an interpretation of Wenders' film Paris, Texas.{{cite journal |last1=Bennett |first1=C. |title=Love among the ruins: on the possibility of dialectical activity in Paris, Texas |journal=Angelaki |date=27 June 2021 |volume=27 |issue=5 |url=https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/178449/ |language=en |issn=0969-725X}}
Books
- The Retrieval of Ethics, Oxford University Press 2009. The book is in 481 libraries contributing to WorldCat.{{Cite book | url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/43434771 | title=The bounds of choice : unchosen virtues, unchosen commitments | publisher=Garland Pub.| location=New York | year=2000 | isbn=9780815336679 | oclc=43434771| first=Talbot|last=Brewer}}
- The Bounds of Choice: Unchosen Virtues, Unchosen Commitments, Routledge & Kegan Paul 2000 The book is in 131 libraries contributing to WorldCat.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{cite web |title=Talbot Brewer |url=https://thevirtueblog.com/tag/talbot-brewer/ |website=The Virtue Blog |date=19 June 2018 |language=en}}
- {{cite web |title=Talbot Brewer |url=https://iasculture.org/scholars/profiles/talbot-brewer |website=Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture |language=en}}
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Category:21st-century American philosophers
Category:American philosophy academics
Category:American political philosophers
Category:University of Virginia faculty
Category:Harvard University alumni