Morality and virtue: An assessment of some recent work in virtue ethics

Ethics 114 (3):514-554 (2004)
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Abstract

This essay focuses on three recent books on morality and virtue, Michael Slote's 'Morals from Motives', Rosalind Hursthouse's 'On Virtue Ethics', and Philippa Foot's 'Natural Goodness'. Slote proposes an "agent-based" ethical theory according to which the ethical status of acts is derivative from assessments of virtue. Following Foot's lead, Hursthouse aims to vindicate an ethical naturalism that explains human goodness on the basis of views about human nature. Both Hursthouse and Slote take virtue to be morally basic in a way that Foot, to her credit, does not. We argue that all three views face a range of serious difficulties

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Author Profiles

David Sobel
Syracuse University
David Copp
University of California, Davis

Citations of this work

What's Aristotelian about neo‐Aristotelian Virtue Ethics?Sukaina Hirji - 2019 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 98 (3):671-696.
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Skill, Practical Wisdom, and Ethical Naturalism.John Hacker-Wright - 2015 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 18 (5):983-993.
A Third Method of Ethics?Roger Crisp - 2012 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 90 (2):257-273.

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