Sketch for a Theory of Virtue Metaphysics

Bijoy Boruah

The crux of Virtue Ethics, in the broad sense of the expression, is the relation between moral agency and virtue. A serious exploration and articulation of this relation requires, I believe, a metaphysical enquiry into the very constitution of the human self and its potentiality to be a virtuous agent. Such an enquiry is what I call ‘Virtue Metaphysics’ and regard it to be the foundation of virtue-theoretic ethics. In this talk I shall sketch the outlines of such an enquiry by depicting the image of a person constituted of what may be described as ‘thin agential individuality’—a property that I argue to be the fulcrum of virtuous agency. In depicting this image I shall draw upon classical Indian philosophical resources, especially the peculiar juncture of the notions of dharma and moksa.