- Professor
Biography
I pursue research at the intersection of moral psychology, virtue ethics, and the philosophy of expertise. I have published extensively on the “virtue-as-skill” thesis, arguing that the development of virtue should be understood as a process of skill acquisition, and I draw on the psychological research on self-regulation and expertise to formulate this thesis. Learning a skill is a process of acquiring practical knowledge, that is, the knowledge of how to do something, like building a house or driving a car. With virtue, the practical knowledge is the knowledge of how to act morally well, like acting honestly or kindly. The ‘virtue as skill’ thesis conceives of the virtuous person as an ethical expert, who has achieved expertise in several moral skills. I ground my conception of skill acquisition in the latest psychological research on self-regulation, expertise, and cognitive science.
Education
Ph.D. in Philosophy, Bowling Green State University
M.A. in Philosophy, Bowling Green State University
B.A. in Philosophy, Vanderbilt University
Research Interests
Moral psychology, Ethics, Epistemology
Recent Publications
- Stichter, Matt (October 2018). The Skillfulness of Virtue: Improving our Moral and Epistemic Lives. Cambridge University Press.
- Stichter, Matt. (2024). Flourishing goals, metacognitive skills, and the virtue of wisdom. Topoi.
- Krettenauer, Tobias and Stichter, Matt. (2023) Moral Identity and the Acquisition of Virtue: A Self-regulation View. Review of General Psychology, 27(4).
- Stichter, Matt (2022). The True Self as Essentially Morally Good – An Obstacle to Moral Improvement? Journal of Moral Education, 51(2), 261-275.
- Fridland, Ellen and Stichter, Matt (2021). It Just Feels Right: an account of expert intuition. Synthese, 199, 1327-1346.