Bringing Orthodox Christianity into the recent dialog on virtue ethics, Joseph Woodill investigates the correspondences between the Eastern Orthodox tradition and contemporary virtue ethics, and he develops a distinctly Orthodox vision of theological ethics.

This book fills a vacuum in our understanding of the Eastern Church by revealing themes, persons, and insights that offer resources for a contemporary moral theology. Reviewing the Eastern tradition from patristic times to the present, Woodill shows its relevance to contemporary virtue ethics and identifies both differences and similarities between Orthodox and other—Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish—virtue ethics.

This fascinating examination of the development of virtue ethics in the early stages of western civilization deals with a wide range of philosophers and schools of philosophy—from Socrates and the Stoics to Plato, Aristotle, and the Epicureans, among others. This introduction examines 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 links them to more current or modern conceptions and controversies.

The tension between viewing ethics and morality as fundamentally religious or as fundamentally rational still runs deep in our culture. A second tension centers on whether we view morality primarily in terms of our obligations or primarily in terms of our desires for what is good. 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. Useful, certainly, for classrooms, Virtue Ethics is also for anyone interested in the fundamental question Socrates posed, "What kind of life is worth living?"

This book offers a clear and systematic introduction to virtue ethics, a topic which has inspired one of the most interesting contemporary debates in ethical theory—the question of whether virtues can replace duties as the primary notion in ethical theory.

The volume comprises an introduction to virtue ethics by Daniel Statman and a collection of the most important essays published on the topic in the last decade. The essays encompass a wide range of aspects: the difference between virtue ethics and traditional duty ethics; arguments for and against virtue ethics; the practical implications of virtue ethics; and Aristotelian and Kantian attitudes towards virtue ethics.

This book argues that pre-modern societies were characterized by a common quest for human flourishing or excellence, i.e. virtue. The history of virtue is a particularly fruitful approach when studying pre-modern periods. Systems of moral philosophy and more day-to-day moral ideas and practices in which virtue was central were incredibly important in pre-modern societies within and among diverse scholarly, literary, religious and social communities. Virtue was a cornerstone of pre-modern societies, permeating society in many different ways, and on many different levels, and it was conveyed in erudite and pedagogical texts, ritual, performance and images. The construction of virtues such as wisdom, courage, and justice helped shape identities and communities, but also served to legitimize and reinforce differences pertaining to gender, social hierarchies, and nations. On a more fundamental level, studying the history of virtue helps us understand the guiding principles of historical action. Thus, we believe that the history of virtue is central to understanding these societies, and that the history of virtue, including criticisms of virtue and virtue ethics, tells us important things about how men and women thought and acted in ages past.