Virtue Ethics is a major approach to normative ethical theory that takes the consideration of character as fundamental to ethical reflection. Philosophers who seek an alternative to the main deontological and consequentialist traditions in modern moral theory have looked to this perspective, especially in the last twenty years.

Virtue Ethics collects, for the first time, the main classical sources and the central contemporary expressions of this increasingly important tradition. In addition to Aristotle, the classical source of "nonmoral" virtue theory, it includes the esteem-based virtue ethics of Francis Hutcheson and David Hume. Contemporary virtue ethicists included are Philippa Foot, John McDowell, Alasdair MacIntyre, Annette Baier, Rosalind Hursthouse, and Michael Slote. There is also an important discussion of character and virtue by Gary Watson. Edited and introduced by Stephen Darwall, these readings are essential for anyone interested in normative theory.

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).

Acknowledgements vi

Introduction 1

Part I Classical Sources 5

1 Aristotle From The Nicomachean Ethics 7

2 Francis Hutcheson From An Inquiry into the Original of Our Idea of Virtue 51

3 David Hume From Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals 63

Part II Contemporary Expressions 103

4 Philippa Foot Virtues and Vices 105

5 John McDowell Virtue and Reason 121

6 Alasdair MacIntyre The Nature of the Virtues 144

7 Annette Baier What Do women Want in a Moral Theory? 168

8 Rosalind Hursthouse Normative Virture Ethics 184

9 Michael Slote Agent-Based Virtue Ethics 203

Part III Contemporary Discussion 227

10 Gary Watson On the Primacy of Character 229

Index 251