Mariana Beatriz Noé is an Early Career Fellow in the Discipline of Philosophy. Her main research project examines how human nature shapes virtue, and she addresses this question at the intersection of ancient proposals and current concerns in ethics.
Her current book project is entitled The Virtues of the People. Contemporary political philosophers argue that we need normative theories for non-ideal scenarios, understood as scenarios of severe injustice and oppression. Plato’s Laws envisages another reason for non-ideal theory: human beings are metaphysically dependent on the workings of the universe, and thus not apt to acquire perfect virtue. Nevertheless, we ought to strive to become better and we ought to aim for a social order that supports this. It is typically assumed that virtue ethics—because of its preoccupation with a perfect person—has nothing to say about non-ideal settings. Contrary to this assumption, Mariana argues that Plato’s Laws is a rich resource for a non-ideal theory of virtue.
Mariana completed her Ph.D. in Classical Studies at Columbia University and her Licentiate degree in Philosophy (summa cum laude) at the University of Buenos Aires. At Columbia, she has taught classes in the departments of Philosophy, Classics, and the Core Curriculum, and in 2018 she won Columbia’s Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching.