Philosophy professor to ask: 'How honest are we?'

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A leading expert on character and morality will visit Virginia Commonwealth University to deliver a public talk, presenting an overview of the latest psychological research on cheating behavior and the motivations behind cheating.

Christian Miller, Ph.D., a professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University, will give his talk, "Cheating: How Honest are We?" at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 23, in room 2104 of the Academic Learning Commons, 1000 Floyd Ave.

In his talk, Miller will suggest that there is good reason to think that most people are not honest in their moral lives, but that they are not dishonest either — instead they tend to exhibit what he calls "mixed" character.

Miller is the author of two books: "Moral Character: An Empirical Theory" (2013) and "Character and Moral Psychology" (2014), and he is writing a third, "Test of Character: How Good (or Bad) Are We?"

His talk is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy in the College of Humanities and Sciences. It will be free and open to the public.