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Virtue, Oppression, And Resistance Struggles, Trevor William Smith

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation explores and develops an account of the moral obligation to engage in resistance struggles against oppression and it does so by situating oppression squarely within the framework of neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics. It is argued that when oppression is investigated through the lens of virtue ethics the harmful and damning nature of oppression must be understood as a substantial moral, not merely political, problem. In short, it is shown that oppression acts in a variety of ways as a barrier for the achievement of flourishing for the oppressed. Turning from, and building on, this investigative and largely descriptive analysis …