traditionally associated with Aristotle. It is written by an academic philosopher and a psychiatrist. ‘Virtue ethics’ holds that right conduct is founded on traits of character rather than adherence to rules, although these may also have their place. Such traits can be developed by training and practice (habituation). Having been eclipsed for some time by the rival approaches of consequentialis...

I argue here that good medical ethics requires an empirically-informed moral psychology of medical virtue along with sound action-guiding prescriptions for virtuous medical practice. After distinguishing between three levels of justification, I indicate how medical virtue ethics can draw constructively on relevant empirical research in developing feasible and realistic aspirational standards fo...

Gelley, A. (ed.) (1995) Unruly Examples: On the Rhetoric of Exemplarity, Stanford: Stanford University Press. Hursthouse, R. (2006) "The Central Doctrine of the Mean," in R. Kraut (ed.) , The Blackwell Guide to Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, Oxford: Blackwell, 96-115. Inwood, B. (2005) "Getting to Goodness" in B. Inwood (ed.), Reading Seneca: Stoic Philosophy at Rome, Oxford: Oxford Universit...

linda zagzebski presents a new kind of foundational moral theory in her exemplarist virtue theory which exemplary persons have considered as the foundation. in this theory all of the basic moral concepts such as good ends and right acts are defined by direct reference to paradigmatically good person. one of the most important consequences of this theory is that moral propositions are a posterio...

“IF MY THESIS IS CORRECT, KANT WAS RIGHT”: REVISITING KANT’S ROLE WITHIN MACINTYRE’S CRITIQUE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECT Although Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue is famous for its critique of the Enlightenment project in moral theory, and although Immanuel Kant is usually considered the greatest protagonist of that project, Kant’s role within the argument of After Virtue is far less clear t...

Evolution has since the publication of The origin of species (1859) been a source of inspiration, and a bone of contention, not only for biology but also for philosophy and the sciences of man. The moral consequences of Darwinism have been a concern for ethicists since Herbert Spencer elevated the survival of the fittest to a norm underwriting cultural and societal progress—hard for the individ...

Videogames have the potential to create ethical experiences and encourage ethical reflection. Usually, this potential is understood in the context of the dominant moral theories: utilitarianism and Kantianism. However, it has been argued that a complete moral theory must also include the concept of an ethics of care. This paper utilizes the ethics of care as an alternative lens for examining th...

PURPOSE/METHODS This study investigated the relationship between ethics education and training, and the use and usefulness of ethics resources, confidence in moral decisions, and moral action/activism through a survey of practicing nurses and social workers from four United States (US) census regions. FINDINGS The sample (n = 1215) was primarily Caucasian (83%), female (85%), well educated (5...

In this project, I seek to an answer to the question of whether the correct ethical framework is a deontological or consequentialist one. I begin with the assumption that morality is objective. Using that as a starting point, I discuss the two primary sources of data on moral topics: our intuitions and our judgments. I note some epistemic worries with regards to our moral intuitions, and argue ...