Virtues, rules, and the foundations of ethics

Clowney, David

doi:10.1007/bf02382584

Cited by 42 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…4 4 Though she may espouse a form of virtue imperialism, I hear hints of this view in Cline 2009. Clowney 1990 defends a thesis similar to mine in his conclusion. My views have also been influenced by Alston 1989.…”

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confidence: 93%

AGAINST METAETHICAL IMPERIALISM: Several Arguments for Equal Partnerships between the Deontic and Aretaic

Couenhoven

2010

Journal of Religious Ethics

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Virtue and deontological ethics are now commonly contrasted as rival approaches to moral inquiry. However, I argue that neither metaethical party should seek complete, solitary domination of the ethical domain. Reductive treatments of the right or the virtuous, as well as projects that abandon the former or latter, are bound to leave us with a sadly diminished map of the moral territories crucial to our lives. Thus, it is better for the two parties to seek a more cordial and equal relationship, one that permits metaethical pluralism, and acknowledges mutual dependence. I do not seek to prescribe how that relationship should look: this essay offers less a positive metaethical position than a prolegomenon to such a position, one that attempts to head off harmful attempts to reduce the territory of the aretaic to that of the deontic, or that of the deontic to the aretaic.

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confidence: 93%

AGAINST METAETHICAL IMPERIALISM: Several Arguments for Equal Partnerships between the Deontic and Aretaic

Couenhoven

2010

Journal of Religious Ethics

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“…See, for example,Laird (1964),Dent (1975),Larmore (1990),Clowney (1990) andGarcia (1992).7 The importance of virtuous action and the question of what a person's actions reveal of his character is brilliantly illustrated in Leo Tolstoy's novel, Anna Karenina. Soon after meeting Anna for the first time, Count Vronsky makes a substantial monetary gift to a woman whose husband-a watchman and the sole provider for a huge family-has just been killed in a train accident.…”

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confidence: 99%

Accidental Rightness

Zyl

2008

Philosophia

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In this paper I argue that the disagreement between modern moral philosophers and (some) virtue ethicists about whether motive affects rightness is a result of conceptual disagreement, and that when they develop a theory of 'right action,' the two parties respond to two very different questions. Whereas virtue ethicists tend to use 'right' as interchangeable with 'good' or 'virtuous' and as implying moral praise, modern moral philosophers use it as roughly equivalent to 'in accordance with moral obligation.' One implication of this is that the possibility of an act being right by accident does not pose a problem for consequentialism or deontology. A further implication is that it reveals a shortcoming in virtue ethics, namely that it does not-yet needs to-present an account of moral obligation.

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The Morality of Happiness

Annas

1995

212

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The book examines the major traditions of ancient ethical theory, showing that they share a common theoretical structure. They are examples of eudaimonism, a type of ethical theory in which the basic concepts are those of happiness and virtue. The book looks at the way this type of theory is articulated in Aristotle, and then at the differing versions of it to be found in Epicurus, the Stoics, and Academic and Pyrrhonian Sceptics. We find a common structure: we all implicitly seek a final end in all our actions, but different theories offer rival accounts of what this consists in. To gain a proper understanding of the ancient debates, we have to examine the basic concepts of happiness and virtue, which in modern ethical theories are often subject to misunderstanding. The book first aims to recover the ancient understanding of these basic notions, then examines the role of nature in ancient ethical justification, the role in eudaimonism of other‐concern, and finally the extent to which the ancient theories demand revision and transformation of everyday ethical thought.

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Virtues, rules, and the foundations of ethics

Cited by 42 publications

References 7 publications

AGAINST METAETHICAL IMPERIALISM: Several Arguments for Equal Partnerships between the Deontic and Aretaic

AGAINST METAETHICAL IMPERIALISM: Several Arguments for Equal Partnerships between the Deontic and Aretaic

Accidental Rightness

The Morality of Happiness

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