Virtue Ethics

Stephen Darwall is the John Dewey Collegiate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. He has written widely on moral philosophy and its history, and is the author of Impartial Reason (1983), The British Moralists and the Internal 'Ought': 1640–1740 (1995), Philosophical Ethics (1998), and Welfare and Rational Care (2002). He is the editor, with Allan Gibbard and Peter Railton, of Moral Discourse and Practice (1997).

“Finally, here's a book that can get one well launched on the study of virtue ethics. Containing classical texts and groundbreaking contemporary essays, it reprints some of the great pivotal pieces that showcase the theory's appeal. Unlike other readers, it represents both the Aristotelian and sentiment-based virtue traditions. It is high time we had such a unique and useful collection available.” Rachel Cohon, The University at Albany, State University of New York

• Acknowledgements viIntroduction 1Part I Classical Sources 51 Aristotle From The Nicomachean Ethics 72 Francis Hutcheson From An Inquiry into the Original of Our Idea of Virtue 513 David Hume From Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals 63Part II Contemporary Expressions 1034 Philippa Foot Virtues and Vices 1055 John McDowell Virtue and Reason 1216 Alasdair MacIntyre The Nature of the Virtues 1447 Annette Baier What Do women Want in a Moral Theory? 1688 Rosalind Hursthouse Normative Virture Ethics 1849 Michael Slote Agent-Based Virtue Ethics 203Part III Contemporary Discussion 22710 Gary Watson On the Primacy of Character 229Index 251