Virtue Ethics

Robert Campbell Roberts here offers an introduction to virtue ethics, suitable for students, that covers the topic along multiple dimensions--a historical and conceptual survey, a proposal for a new virtue ethics drawing on ancient practices, and a case study in support of that proposal. First, Roberts introduces virtue ethics historically and conceptually, in its ancient and more recent versions. He starts with Greek virtue ethics, using the thought of Socrates, Stoicism, and Aristotle, and examines other strains of virtue ethics using the Old and New Testaments. He shows how ancient virtue ethics explored ethical concepts within one or another particular ethical outlook and how it aimed to cultivate wisdom and allied virtues in its practitioners. More recently, virtue ethics in the work of Elizabeth Anscombe and Alasdair MacIntyre addressed a threat to ethics: that the pluralism of ethical outlooks tends to engender relativism, skepticism, and ultimately nihilism, ending in the collapse of ethics. Second, after this historical and conceptual survey, Roberts then offers his own proposal for a new virtue ethics that more closely resembles the ancient practice of exploring ethical concepts in the interest of wisdom. Third, and finally, in support of this proposal, Roberts offers an extended case study of Christian virtue ethics: an exploration of such virtues as generosity, gratitude, forgivingness, gentleness, humility, truthfulness, patience, and wisdom as these concepts arise in the Bible. This unique introduction by a preeminent scholar of the topic will interest scholars and students interested in virtue ethics, across philosophy, religious studies, and theology.