Talent dispositionalism

Abstract

Talents often play a significant role in our personal and social lives. For example, our talents may shape the choices we make and the goods that we value, making them central to the creation of a meaningful life. Differences in the level of talents also affect how social institutions are structured, and how social goods and resources are distributed. Despite their normative importance, it is surprising that talents have not yet received substantial philosophical analysis in their own right. As a result, the current literature is rife with conceptual ambiguity: a talent is referred to as all of a skill, potential, ability, capacity, endowment, and a natural gift. In response to this confusion, in this paper I develop an account of what a talent is, based on the debate concerning the metaphysics of ability and dispositions. I argue for a position that I call 'talent dispositionalism': S has a talent for skill A in circumstances C iff S has the general disposition to excellently develop and maintain A when, in circumstances C, she tries to excellently develop and maintain A. On this account, a talent is not the skill itself, but a general iterated ability for the excellent development and up-keep of a particular skill, constituted by an agent's dispositional properties. I defend the account against four objections usually levelled against traditional dispositionalist theories of ability, and highlight some ways the account may influence debates in other areas of philosophical inquiry.

The Idea of Merit: Delineation and Challenges

“…The definition of 'talent' is far from being uncontroversial (see Gallardo-Gallardo et al, 2013;Meyers et al, 2013;Robb, 2021;Turner & Kalman, 2014, chap. 3).…”

Identification and Education of Students with Gifts and Talents Based on the Fuzzy Conception of Giftedness

“…The disposition itself is the possible emergence of a lower-order disposition [4]. Thus, a higher-order disposition is an ability to attain another (new) ability [5]. As the term is applied in giftedness research, giftedness can be considered an ability to develop further personal dispositions, such as motivation, consciousness, and creativity, leading to excellence and the manifestation of excellence.…”

The trouble with merit

“…On the other hand, this area of scholarly research has been invigorated by normative and conceptual research on talents and distributive justice (e.g. Robb, 2021; Sardoč and Deželan, 2021), ‘natural’ and ‘social’ inequality (e.g. de los Santos, 2021), and the American Dream (Sardoč and Hauhart, 2021; Reeves, 2014), with some of the most important contemporary philosophers contributing reflections on particular aspects associated with merit-based allocation and distribution of advantaged social positions (e.g.…”

“…In contrast to other concepts from the standard egalitarian vocabulary, for example, equality, opportunity, desert, social mobility, solidarity, fairness, and ultimately justice itself, there has been some sort of a conceptual negligence associated with the concept of ‘talent’ (e.g. Robb, 2021; Sardoč and Deželan, 2021; Trannoy, 2019). As I have previously argued, while the ‘standard’ understanding of the relationship between talents and effort views the two variables as distinct entities, there are scholars who point out that their relationship is far more complex and dynamic.…”