First post (does this mean I get an A?)

On page 233 of Virtue Theory and Abortion, Hursthouse states that disagreements with her arguments will stem readers having either greater or lesser moral wisdom than she. This seems to imply a universal gradation system, with human beings having either greater or lesser moral wisdom, depending largely upon experience. She states that children fall at the lowest end of this scale, having the least experience.

I would argue that there are plenty of moral, virtuous people with little experience, and plenty of indecent people with vast amounts of experience. While virtuous attributes may be gained through experience, they are not solely the product of experience. Hursthouse completely ignores nature in favor of nurture. Children can be born with the disposition to be considerate, kind, courageous, studious, industrious, etc. Vices such as depression or gluttony can be at least partly inherited, and these vices can lead to other vices and make virtuous attributes harder to attain. Other inherited attributes, such as intelligence and appearance, will if nothing else impact how others treat individuals and, given negative feedback, could cause even the extremely experienced to form vices rather than virtues. Nurture and nature combine to form virtue; it is not merely the product of experience.

Hursthouse also easily dismisses the notion of particularly virtuous youths, as if virtue is something that can only be attained through years of hard work, and not something that can be “lucked into” due to either great societal or familial factors, or perhaps such factors combined with luck. While virtue may be something to attain, it is not something that can only be attained; rather, it can be formed via external factors.

Hursthouse seems to think that moral experience can only lead to virtue, yet there seems to be many who became less virtuous via experience, such as the embittered old war veteran, or the idealistic politician turned corrupt. Hursthouse might argue that such individuals had never truly achieved eudemonia, yet she also seems to imply that any experience leads to virtue. And yet, surely the innocent and idealistic are more virtuous than the corrupt and embittered.