Buch Details

"From Aristotle to Zeno, Introduction to Virtue Ethics examines the foundations on which later philosophers built their understandings of the place - and meaning - of human life. The Greek term arete, which we generally translate as "virtue," can also be translated as "excellence." Arete embraced both intellectual and moral excellence as well as human creations and achievements." "This survey of the development of virtue ethics in the early stages of western civilization deals with a wide range of philosophers and schools of philosophy and speaks to those human attributes that we have come to know as the "stuff" of virtue: desire, happiness, the "good," character, the role of pride, prudence, and wisdom, and stands them against more current or modern conceptions and controversies." There remains a tension between viewing ethics and morality as something religious or as something essentially rational. A second tension centers on whether we view morality primarily in terms of our obligations or primarily in terms of our desire for what is good. Introduction to Virtue Ethics is for anyone interested in the fundamental question Socrates posed: "What kind of life is worth living?"