Working Virtue is the first substantial collective
study of virtue theory and contemporary moral problems.
Leading figures in ethical theory and applied ethics
discuss topics in bioethics, professional ethics, ethics
of the family, law, interpersonal ethics, and the
emotions. Virtue ethics is centrally concerned with
character traits or virtues and vices such as courage
(cowardice), kindness (heartlessness), and generosity
(stinginess). These character traits must be looked to
in any attempt to understand which particular actions
are right or wrong and how we ought to live our lives.
As a theoretical approach, virtue ethics has made an
impressive comeback in relatively recent history, both
posing an alternative to, and, in some ways,
complementing well-known theoretical stances such as
utilitarianism and deontology. Yet there is still very
little material available that presents virtue-ethical
approaches to practical contemporary moral problems,
such as what we owe distant strangers, our parents, or
even non-human animals. This book fills the gap by
dealing with these and other pressing moral problems in
a clear and theoretically nuanced manner. The
contributors offer a variety of perspectives, including
pluralistic, eudaimonistic, care-theoretical, Chinese,
comparative, and stoic. This variety allows the reader
to appreciate not only the wide range of topics for
which a virtue-ethical approach may be fitting, but also
the distinctive ways in which such an approach may be
manifested.
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