Virtue

What is a virtue, and how are virtues different from vices? Do people with virtues lead better lives than the rest of us? Do they know more? Can we acquire virtues if so, how? In this lively and engaging introduction to this core topic, Heather Battaly argues that there is more than one kind of virtue. Some virtues make the world a better place, or help us to attain knowledge. Other virtues are dependent upon good intentions like caring about other people or about truth. Virtue is an original approach to the topic, which carefully situates the fields of virtue ethics and virtue epistemology.

Cover -- Series page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Acknowledgments -- Dedication -- 1: What Are the Virtues? -- 1.1 A Working Definition of Virtue -- 1.2 Two Key Concepts of Virtue -- 1.3 Must We Choose between the Two Key Concepts? -- 1.4 Why Should We Care about the Virtues? -- Notes -- 2: Ends Matter: Virtues Attain Good Ends or Effects -- 2.1 Virtues Attain Good Ends: The Teleological Variety -- 2.2 Virtues Attain Good Effects: The Nonteleological Variety -- 2.3 Luck in Getting Ends or Effects -- Notes -- 3: Motives Matter: Virtues Require Good Motives.

3.1 Virtues Require Good Motives-and-Actions, but Attaining Good Ends? -- 3.2 Virtues Require Good Motives-Actions-and-Attaining-Good-Ends: Linda Zagzebski -- 3.3 Virtues Require Good Motives-and-Actions-but-not-Attaining-Good-Ends: Montmarquet and Slote -- 3.4 Objections -- Notes -- 4: Vice and Failures of Virtue -- 4.1 Ends Matter: Vices Attain Bad Ends or Effects -- 4.2 Motives Matter: Vices Require Bad Motives -- 4.3 Weakness of Will and Vice -- 4.4 Self-Control and Virtue -- Notes -- 5: Virtue, Right Action, and Knowledge -- 5.1 Components of the Virtues.

5.2 Are Components of Moral Virtue Necessary and Sufficient f…