Parr Center Presents: Christian Miller (Wake Forest) – CANCELED

Christian Miller, Wake Forest University

September 13, 2023 | 5:30PM | Morehead Lounge, Graham Memorial Hall

“What is Honesty, Are Most People Honest, and How Can We Become More Honest?”

Honesty is clearly an important virtue. Parents want to develop it in their children. Close relationships typically depend upon it. Employers value it in their employees. Yet philosophers have said almost nothing about the virtue of honesty in the past fifty years. This talk aims to draw attention to this surprisingly neglected virtue. The first part will give a preliminary account of the virtue. The second will draw upon empirical research from psychology to assess how honest we tend to be. And the third part will outline some strategies for reducing the character gap between the virtue of honesty and our actual characters.

Christian Miller is A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University, and currently the Director of the Honesty Project, funded by a $4.4 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation. He is the author of over 100 academic papers as well as Moral Psychology with Cambridge University Press (2021) and four books with Oxford University Press, Moral Character: An Empirical Theory (2013), Character and Moral Psychology (2014), The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (2017), and Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue (2021). He is a science contributor for Forbes, and his writings have also appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Slate, The Conversation, Newsweek, Aeon, and Christianity Today.

This event is free and open to the public, and will run for approximately 90 minutes. Light refreshments will be served after Q&A and discussion.