Parr Center Presents: Christian Miller (Wake Forest)

Christian Miller, Wake Forest University

January 31, 2024 | 5:30PM | James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence in Graham Memorial, 039

“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 the A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University. He is the Director of the Honesty Project, funded by 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. He is a science contributor for Forbes, and his writings have also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The 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.