Transcending Positive Psychology: Part 4, There is No Virtue After Virtue

In the first post I made the claim that positive psychology cannot give a full and comprehensive description of human flourishing because of its commitment to the fact/value split. To illustrate that claim I pointed out how positive psychology attempts to appeal to "virtues" and "character strengths," borrowing these from the ancient virtue traditions. I described these virtues as "zombie virtues," lifeless and directionless shells of their former selves. To defend that claim, we closely examined the history of the fact/value split and the teleological context of the virtue tradition. Having separated itself from a teleological understanding of human flourishing, positive psychology has attempted to reclaim virtue after virtue, to borrow a phrase from Alasdair MacIntyre. This attempt of positive psychology to promote virtue after virtue flounders.

Here's why the attempt to preach virtue after virtue fails for positive psychology. Let's go back to look at positive psychology's list of virtues and character strengths from the first post: 

1. Wisdom: Creativity, Curiosity, Judgment, Love of Learning, Perspective


2. Courage: Bravery, Perseverance, Honesty, Zest


3. Humanity: Love, Kindness, Social Intelligence


4. Justice: Teamwork, Fairness, Leadership


5. Temperance: Forgiveness, Humility, Prudence, Self-Regulation


6. Transcendence: Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Gratitude, Hope, Humor, Spirituality

Notice how, without a teleological framework, a vision of the telos, purpose, and goal of human life, these virtues just hang in the air. Unlike the ancient traditions, these virtues and strengths are going nowhere. No end is in view. The virtues and strengths are presented in an isolated, trait-like way, reducing them to a sort of personality inventory. To say nothing about some real puzzlers in this list.

Regarding the puzzlers, why is sense of humor included in transcendence? Humor can take many forms, many of them dark and aggressive. Why is love of learning associated with wisdom? There are a lot of people with PhDs who aren't very wise. We could go on, but I'll just pause here to point out that, at a superficial glance, I don't think the positive psychology folks knew very much about any of the virtue traditions they were poaching from.

More importantly is the lack of a teleological framework. Where are these virtues and character strengths supposed to be taking us? What vision of human life is supposed to emerge from this list? Consider bravery. Were the Nazi soldiers brave? What about suicide bombers? Yes, those are extreme examples, but I use them to illustrate the point. "Virtues" and "character strengths" can be pointed at many different targets. Think about other virtues that seem to be intrinsically good, like hope and gratitude. Hope for what exactly? Some bad things can be hoped for. Gratitude can also have a dark aspect. Think of Jesus' Parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee. The Pharisee starts off his prayer with a troublesome expression of gratitude: "Lord, I thank you that I am not like other people." Examples abound, from misuses of justice and mercy to people using their empathy and social intelligence for Machiavellian purposes.

Here's the point. If you don't specify the overarching telos of human life, all positive psychology provides us with is a random list of adjectives. There is no cohesion or direction to the virtues. No animating life or spirit. Just shuffling zombies. 

And here's the kicker. Positive psychology cannot address this problem because, as an empirical project committed to the fact/value split, positive psychology is silent on questions of value. Positive psychology can't tell you what life is for, or if life is for anything at all. This is what I mean when I say, in The Shape of Joy, that positive psychology cannot give a full account of human flourishing. Positive psychology can point you to the virtues but cannot speak to or advocate for the values that give those virtues direction, unity, and life.