What is 'virtue'?And how can we lead moral lives?Exploring how contemporary moral philosophy has led to a revival of interest in the concepts of 'virtue', 'character' and 'flourishing', this is an accessible and critical introduction to virtue ethics. Comprising of three parts, the first part examines the work of key contemporary thinkers such as Elizabeth Anscombe and Bernard Williams in calling for a change of direction in moral philosophy and adopting a different approach to answering questions such as 'How should I live my life?'. The second part develops a detailed account of Aristotelian eudaimonistic virtue ethics, which considers the virtuous agent to be an ideal and highlights the importance of moral perception and practical wisdom. In the final part, Athanassoulis explores new challenges to virtue ethics from psychology, discusses the practical implications of educating for the virtues and finally considers the neo-Kantian response to virtue ethics.Virtue Ethics also includes chapter summaries and guides to further reading throughout to help readers explore, understand and develop a critical perspective towards this important school of contemporary ethical thought.

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Nafsika Athanassoulis

Continuum International Publishing Group, Incorporated

Continuum International Publishing Group, Limited

United States, United States of America

Bloomsbury ethics series, London, 2013

Continuum ethics, London, 2012

producers:
Adobe PDF Library 8.0

Memory of the World Librarian: Slowrotation

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

Title Page 4
Copyright page 5
Contents 8
Acknowledgements 11
Abbreviations, Sources And Translations 12
Introduction 14
Part 1: Virtue ethics as a new alternative 22
Chapter 1 Virtue ethics, a revived alternative 24
1. A small revolution 24
2. What do we want from ethics? 27
3. How should i live my life? 29
4. One size does not fit all 31
Further readings 33
Chapter 2 Ethics and morality 35
1. The limits of morality 35
2. The meaningful life 40
3. Why you don’t want to be a moral saint 43
4. How to avoid moral schizophrenia 45
Further readings 47
Chapter 3 Character and the emotions 48
1. The purity of morality 48
2. The notion of ‘character’ 52
3. Character development 54
4. The fragility of goodness 57
Further readings 60
Conclusion for Part One 61
Part 2: Virtue ethics comes of age 64
Chapter 4 Virtue; an Aristotelian definition I 66
1. The primacy of virtue 66
2. Doing the right thing is not enough 69
3. The function of human beings 71
4. The definition of virtue 74
Further readings 79
Chapter 5 Virtue; an Aristotelian definition II 80
1. The role of the ideally virtuous agent 80
2. The orthos logos 83
3. Moral perception 84
4. Practical wisdom 89
Further readings 93
Chapter 6 A naturalistic account of virtue 94
1. Teleology; a discredited account? 94
2. Aristotle on teleology 98
3. Moral luck 101
4. Hursthouse and Foot on teleology 106
Further readings 109
Conclusion for Part Two 111
Part 3: Current developments in virtue ethics 114
Chapter 7 The challenge from personality psychology 116
1. The fundamental attribution error 116
2. Reconsidering the empirical evidence 121
3. Weakness of will 124
4. Getting it wrong 130
Further readings 133
Chapter 8 Moral education and the virtues 134
1. Failing to notice 134
2. Moral imagination 138
3. The emotions revisited 142
4. Change 146
Further readings 149
Chapter 9 The Kantian response 150
1. The role of the categorical imperative 150
2. Imperfect duties and impartiality 154
3. Acting from duty and the emotions 156
4. Virtue as strength of will 160
Further readings 164
Conclusion for Part Three 165
Conclusion 170
Notes 173
1 Virtue ethics, a revived alternative 173
2 Ethics and morality 173
3 Character and the emotions 173
4 Virtue; an Aristotelian definition i 173
5 Virtue; an Aristotelian definition ii 174
6 A naturalistic account of virtue 174
7 The challenge from personality psychology 175
8 Moral education and the virtues 177
9 The Kantian response 178
Bibliography 180
Index 186

Exploring how contemporary moral philosophy has tackled the issue of 'character', this is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to virtue ethics. Looking back to Aristotle and considering the work of key contemporary thinkers such as MacIntyre and McDowell, this book critically explores the historical development of the field and competing accounts within it.

2025-10-27