Shannon Vallor’s technomoral virtues are essential, but does their global case need a philosophical synthesis, or does psychology already provide it?
The Problem with Rules and Calculations
Emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, present a unique challenge to our established ethical frameworks. The two dominant modes of Western moral philosophy—utilitarianism and deontology—both falter when faced with AI. The sheer scale and open-ended nature of AI’s societal impact make a utilitarian calculus of consequences functionally impossible; the ripple effects are too complex and far-reaching to predict. At the same time, the Kantian, rule-based approach of deontology is too rigid for a technology that may fundamentally alter the context of human action, and perhaps even human nature itself.
In this landscape, philosopher Shannon Vallor’s work on technomoral virtue ethics has become a critical touchstone. Her diagnosis is that we need to shift focus from outcomes and rules to character. What we need is the cultivation of practical wisdom as a habit—a set of technomoral virtues that guide technologists and users alike.
A Grand Synthesis for a Global Problem
To establish that such a virtue framework is not culturally specific but globally applicable, Vallor undertakes a remarkable synthesis. She argues for a coherent moral core shared between Aristotelian virtue ethics (the phronimos, or person of practical wisdom), Confucian role ethics (the junzi, or exemplary person), and Buddhist philosophy (the communal wisdom of the Sangha). By demonstrating a deep resonance between these disparate traditions, she builds a case for a cross-cultural foundation for technomoral virtue.
A Friendly Objection: Redundant Scaffolding
Vallor’s project is widely respected, and her diagnosis of the problem is broadly accepted. An objection, however, can be raised not against the virtue framework itself, but against the necessity of her philosophical synthesis. This friendly critique suggests the synthesis is brilliant but ultimately redundant.
As Bruce Long argues, the cross-cultural validity that Vallor works to construct through comparative philosophy may already be available through empirical science.
Cross-cultural psychology already finds substantial stability in human personality structure and moral disposition; psychometric instruments recover stable structures globally, with variation mostly in the boundaries of specific emotional concepts rather than in the underlying dispositions. The global applicability of virtue ethics is better supported by human psychology than by philosophically hammering Aristotle, Confucius and the Buddha into one schema.
In this view, the synthesis appears motivated by a desire to prove a cross-cultural validity that virtue ethics, grounded in a stable human nature, already possessed. The scaffolding was unnecessary because the foundation was already solid.
From Theory to Application
This debate is more than academic. It highlights a core principle of our work at Arcanamatic: effective models must be grounded in empirical reality. The power of NeuraScene’s Psychology Module comes from its basis in the same psychometric data that reveals these stable, cross-cultural human dispositions. We build campaigns on how human cognition actually works, not on an abstract ideal.
For AI, virtues like honesty (about a system’s capabilities and limits) and humility (in the face of complex systems we don’t fully control) are paramount. An ethics grounded in the observable realities of human psychology provides a more robust and reliable guide for developing and deploying these systems than one that requires extensive philosophical justification. The objection, far from weakening the case for virtue ethics, strengthens it by placing it on firmer, empirically verifiable ground.
Method note. This piece was built in NeuraScene's Advertising Mode using an explicit psychological frame:
- Persuasion trigger: The Halo Effect
- Target affect: Cognitive Ease
- Gestalt principle: Common Region
The Halo Effect leverages the article's intellectual honesty to build trust in the Arcanamatic brand. Cognitive Ease makes the complex philosophical argument accessible and frictionless for the reader. The key art uses Common Region to visually metaphorize the act of synthesis at the heart of the debate.
