Abstract

When one fails to have an accurate moral perception, a defect in character is often invoked. This paper aims to show that certain inaccurate moral perceptions – specifically, moral illusions – may be a result of virtue, rather than a lack of it.  By examining how an optimal perceptual system can give rise to perceptual illusions, a similar argument is made when it comes to moral perception: an optimal moral perceptual system plausibly operates by using stored probabilistic information and can likewise give rise to the occasional moral illusion.  Furthermore, I argue that this holds even when virtue is taken to be an ideal, for I show that the ideal of virtue will also be constrained by empirical facts about human psychology. Lastly, I consider how the virtuous person is to navigate cases where they are undergoing a moral illusion.

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