Christian Miller Mixed Traits Analysis

In chapter 2, Christian Miller speaks about the framework of mixed traits. He begins by speaking about how people react to certain situations. They could have reactive aggression which happens in the heat of the moment or it could be done in a planned out or premeditated way. In order for someone to have a character trait, it must have relevant normative standards to qualify as a vice. In order for a character trait to qualify as a virtue, it must have mental dispositions that have a particular kind of virtue themselves. Two people could have the same virtue of compassion, but they may not have it to the same degree. This makes it so that there is a wide array of traits that you can do more or less than others. He then speaks about the Milgram …show more content…
There are certain cases where someone would be willing to hurt someone and other cases where they would not. Most people are seen to have a small amount of aggressiveness most of the time, and then there is a good amount of medium aggressiveness and very little over the top aggressiveness. Things that could enhance the aggressiveness would be anger, frustration, shame, or threatened self-esteem. Some things that could keep us away from being aggressive would be guilt, empathy, negative affects, and activated moral norms. Usually for people, they have the same amount of aggressiveness in the same situations. If the situation differs, aggressiveness changes. Everything depends on what we are currently doing and how that would affect our decision …show more content…
I do not think many of us have virtues and for the few that do possess them, I think that they would have to use them unlike what Miller believes. If people possess a virtue, I think they have to use them because it is in their minds and it would help lead them to make certain situations. If they do not act on a virtue they possess, is it really truly a virtue? On Miller’s point on Mixed Aggression Traits, I completely agree. I think that for everyone, the situation at hand is different. There are many things that go on in people’s minds on whether or not they should do something. These decisions are based on our own thoughts and what we believe. This makes it so that there is a wide range of outcomes that could happen. In the experiments, it is clear that people who had authority telling them what to do would obey the authority. For those who did not have authority, they would use the stress remarks less. There was a range of how many times people used those stress remarks and it shows how people would react to a situation based on what they are going through at the