The Practice of Virtue: Classic and Contemporary Readings in Virtue Ethics

This anthology can be used to cover the virtue ethics component of an ethics course, either in conjunction with one of the larger ethics texts - many include no material on virtue theory, or very little - or with free standing editions; as the centrepiece of a course devoted entirely to virtue theory; or as a component of an introductory course that includes a section on ethics. Part 1 includes readings from five classic thinkers with importantly distinct approaches to virtue. Part 2 provides five new essays from contemporary thinkers that apply virtue theories to the resolution of practical moral problems. Jennifer Welchman provides a general Introduction on the history of virtue theory, a short introduction to each selection that highlights the distinctive aspects of the author’s view, and suggested further readings for each selection.