Bellingham Lectures in Philosophy and Religion
February 26 and 27, 2015
Featuring: Christian Miller, PhD
Christian Miller, Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University, is Director of The
Character Project, funded by a $4.18 million Templeton grant. He earned his BA from Princeton
and his PhD from Notre Dame. Dr. Miller focuses his research on meta-ethics, moral
psychology, moral character, action theory, and philosophy of religion. His articles appear in
top-tier journals including Noûs, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, The Journal of
Ethics, Philosophical Studies, and Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion. He most recently
authored two books: Moral Character: An Empirical Theory (Oxford 2013) and Character and
Moral Psychology (Oxford 2014). He is President of the North Carolina Philosophical Society.
Schedule
Date
Venue
2/26 Thur, 4:15-5:45 AH 100 BLPR Lecture 1. Mixed characters
After briefly introducing the ideas of virtue, vice, and the good life, Dr.
Miller asks whether people today are virtuous or vicious, specifically
whether they have virtues, like honesty or compassion, and vices, like
cruelty and dishonesty. Drawing on contemporary psychology, he will
suggest the answer is ‘no’. Rather, the emerging picture is that people
today have mixed characters, with some morally positive and negative
aspects.
2/27 Fri, 4:15-5:45
AH 100 BLPR Lecture 2. Developing your character
In this lecture, Dr. Miller offers a few ideas about how people can move
from a mixed character to a more virtuous character, drawing on both
secular and religious approaches to becoming more virtuous.
Sponsored by the Provost’s Office, the Office of Undergraduate Education, the College of
Business and Economics, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Ethics Initiative,
and the Department of Philosophy.