What is Virtue? A Talk with Professor Christian B. Miller

“I have no desire to be president for example. But in that one aspect, I’m motivated or inspired to have my character better reflect [Lincoln’s] character. Not bring him down to my level but bring my character up to his level.”

Dr. Christian B. Miller is the A.C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University, where he focuses on contemporary ethics and religion. He has served as director of The Character Project, one of the world’s largest research ventures into character and virtue. His current research analyzes the cross between psychology and philosophy. Last year, he published a book on the subject called The Character Gap: How Good Are We? On July 31, Professor Miller spoke with Merion West’s Erich Prince about his new book, modern applications of virtue, and philosophy’s intersection with psychology.

To start off, could you talk about the process of writing The Character Gap? How did you decide that this was the project you wanted to take on?

I am a professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University, where I’ve been for fifteen years. About ten years ago, I shifted gears in my research, from some other topics in ethics, to more of a focus on character. Then for quite a while, I was doing more academic research on character. In other words, I was reading academic journals and books, and trying to add my own contributions to the mix, which eventually led to the publication of two books on the topic of character with Oxford University Press.