the cambridge companion to VIRTUE ETHICS Virtue ethics has emerged from a rich history to become one of the fastest-growing fields in contemporary ethics. In this volume of newly commissioned essays, leading moral philosophers offer a comprehensive overview of virtue ethics. They examine the theoretical structure of virtue ethics and its place in contemporary moral theory, as well as the history of virtue-based approaches to ethics, what makes these approaches distinctive, what they can say about specific practical issues, and where we can expect them to go in the future. This Companion will be useful to students of virtue ethics and the history of ethics, and to others who want to understand how virtue ethics is changing the face of contemporary moral philosophy. daniel c. russell is Professor of Philosophy at the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom and the Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona, and the Percy Seymour Reader in Ancient History and Philosophy at Ormond College, University of Melbourne. He is the author of Plato on Pleasure and the Good Life (2005), Practical Intelligence and the Virtues (2009), and Happiness for Humans (2012).
other volumes in the series of cambridge companions ABELARD Edited by jeffrey e. brower and kevin guilfoy ADORNO Edited by thomas huhn ANCIENT SCEPTICISM Edited by richard bett ANSELM Edited by brian davies and brian leftow AQUINAS Edited by norman kretzmann and eleonore stump ARABIC PHILOSOPHY Edited by peter adamson and richard c. taylor HANNAH ARENDT Edited by dana villa ARISTOTLE Edited by jonathan barnes ATHEISM Edited by michael martin AUGUSTINE Edited by eleonore stump and norman kretzmann BACON Edited by markku peltonen BERKELEY Edited by kenneth p. winkler BOETHIUS Edited by john marenbon BRENTANO Edited by dale jacquette CARNAP Edited by michael friedman CONSTANT Edited by helena rosenblatt CRITICAL THEORY Edited by fred rush DARWIN 2nd edition Edited by jonathan hodge and gregory radick SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR Edited by claudia card DELEUZE Edited by daniel smith and henry somers-hall DESCARTES Edited by john cottingham DEWEY Edited by molly cochran DUNS SCOTUS Edited by thomas williams EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY Edited by a. a. long EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY Edited by donald rutherford EPICUREANISM Edited by james warren EXISTENTIALISM Edited by steven crowell FEMINISM IN PHILOSOPHY Edited by miranda fricker and jennifer hornsby FOUCAULT 2nd edition Edited by gary gutting Continued at the back of the book
The Cambridge Companion to VIRTUE ETHICS Edited by Daniel C. Russell University of Arizona
cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Information on this title: /9781107001169 C Cambridge University Press 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed and Bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Books Group A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data The Cambridge companion to virtue ethics / edited by Daniel C. Russell. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 339) and index. isbn 978-1-107-00116-9 (hardback) 1. Ethics. 2. Virtue. I. Russell, Daniel C. bj1521.c17 2013 179.9 dc23 2012024122 isbn 978-1-107-00116-9 Hardback isbn 978-0-521-17174-8 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
contents List of contributors Acknowledgments List of figures page ix xiii xiv Introduction: virtue ethics in modern moral philosophy 1 daniel c. russell 1 Virtue ethics, happiness, and the good life 7 daniel c. russell 2 Ancient virtue ethics: an overview with an emphasis on practical wisdom 29 rachana kamtekar 3 Virtue ethics and the Chinese Confucian tradition 49 philip j. ivanhoe 4 Virtue ethics in the medieval period 70 jean porter 5 Hume s anatomy of virtue 92 paul russell 6 The historic decline of virtue ethics 124 dorothea frede 7 Virtue ethics in the twentieth century 149 timothy chappell vii
viii Contents 8 Virtue ethics and right action 172 liezl van zyl 9 Virtue ethics and bioethics 197 justin oakley 10 Environmental virtue ethics: what it is and what it needs to be 221 matt zwolinski and david schmidtz 11 The virtue approach to business ethics 240 edwin hartman 12 Virtue and politics 265 mark lebar 13 The situationist critique of virtue ethics 290 gopal sreenivasan 14 The definition of virtue ethics 315 christine swanton Bibliography 339 Index 363
contributors timothy chappell is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Ethics Centre at the Open University. He has published extensively on both ancient and contemporary ethics, and his books include Aristotle and Augustine on Freedom (1995), The Plato Reader (1996), Understanding Human Goods (1998), Reading Plato s Theaetetus (2004), The Inescapable Self (2005), and Ethics and Experience (2009).HehasalsoeditedPhilosophy of the Environment (1997), Human Values (with David Oderberg, 2004), Values and Virtues (2006), and The Moral Problem of Demandingness (2009). dorothea frede is Professor Emerita at the University of Hamburg, and Honorary Professor at Humboldt University, Berlin. Her publications include Plato s Philebus (1993), Plato s Phaedo (1999), Traditions of Theology (with Andre Laks, 2002), Language and Learning (with Brad Inwood, 2005), and Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy (with Burkhard Reis, 2007), as well as numerous articles on the ethics of Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic philosophers. edwin hartman taught in the Business School and the Philosophy Department at Rutgers University for many years before finishing his career at the Stern School of Business at New York University. He is the author of Aristotle on Soul and Body (1969), Substance, Body, and Soul: Aristotelian Investigations (1977), Conceptual Foundations of Organization Theory (1988), and Organizational Ethics and the Good Life (1996), as well as numerous articles on ancient philosophy and business ethics. His new book on an Aristotelian approach to business ethics will be published in 2013 by Cambridge University Press. ix
x List of contributors philip j. ivanhoe is Professor of Philosophy at the City University of Hong Kong. He is the author, translator, and editor of numerous books in Chinese moral philosophy and virtue ethics, including Confucian Moral Self Cultivation (2000), Ethics in the Confucian Tradition (2002), The Daodejing Laozi (2003), The Essays and Letters of Zhang Xuecheng (2009), Readings from the Lu-Wang School (2009), and Master Sun s Art of War (2011). His numerous edited works include Virtue, Nature, and Moral Agency in the Xunzi (with T. C. Kline, 2000), Working Virtue: Virtue Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems (with Rebecca Walker, 2007), Taking Confucian Ethics Seriously (with Kam-Por Yu and Julia Tao, 2010), and Mortality in Traditional Chinese Thought (with Amy Olberding, 2011). rachana kamtekar is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona. She is the author of numerous articles on ancient as well as contemporary virtue ethics and moral psychology, and has edited Plato s Euthyphro, Crito, and Apology: Critical Essays (2004), A Companion to Socrates (with Sara Ahbel-Rappe, 2006), and Virtue and Happiness: Essays in Honour of Julia Annas (2012). She is currently working on a manuscript entitled The Powers of Plato s Psychology. mark lebar is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Ohio University. He is the author of numerous articles on ancient and contemporary ethics, practical reasoning, and well-being, and his book The Value of Living Well is forthcoming. justin oakley is Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre for Human Bioethics at Monash University. He has published extensively on applications of virtue ethics to a wide range of issues in bioethics and the health-care professions. He is the author of Morality and the Emotions (1993) and Virtue Ethics and Professional Roles (with Dean Cocking, 2001), and is editor of Informed Consent and Clinician Accountability (with Steve Clarke, 2007), and Bioethics (2009). jean porter is Rev. John A. O Brien Professor of Theological Ethics and member of the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame. She has published extensively on moral theology and the history of Christian moral thought, and her books include The Recovery
List of contributors xi of Virtue (1990), Natural and Divine Law (1999), Nature as Reason (2005) and most recently Ministers of the Law (2010). daniel c. russell is Professor of Philosophy in the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom at the University of Arizona, and the Percy Seymour Reader in Ancient History and Philosophy at Ormond College, University of Melbourne. He has published numerous articles on ancient and contemporary ethics and moral psychology, and is the author of Plato on Pleasure and the Good Life (2005), Practical Intelligence and the Virtues (2009), and Happiness for Humans (2012). paul russell is Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of numerous articles on the history of early modern philosophy and moral psychology. His books include Freedom and Moral Sentiment (1995) andthe Riddle of Hume s Treatise (2008), as well an edited collection Free Will and Reactive Attitudes (with Michael McKenna, 2008). At the present time he is preparing two edited collections, The Oxford Handbook of David Hume and The Philosophy of Free Will (with Oisin Deery), and is at work on another book, The Limits of Free Will. david schmidtz is Kendrick Professor of Philosophy, Joint Professor of Economics, and founding director of the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom at the University of Arizona. He has published extensively on political philosophy, ethics, and practical reasoning and is the author of The Limits of Government (1991), Rational Choice and Moral Agency (1995), Social Welfare and Individual Responsibility (with Robert Goodin, 1998), The Elements of Justice (2006), Person, Polis, Planet (2008), and A Brief History of Liberty (with Jason Brennan, 2010). He has also edited Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works (with Elizabeth Willott, 2001), Robert Nozick (2002), and Creating Wealth: Ethical and Economic Perspectives (2011). gopal sreenivasan is Crown Professor of Ethics and Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. He is the author of numerous articles on ethics, political philosophy, and philosophical psychology, and his books include The Limits of Lockean Rights in Property (1995) and Emotion and Virtue (forthcoming).
xii List of contributors christine swanton is a professor in Philosophy at the University of Auckland. She is the author of numerous articles on virtue ethics, the history of philosophy, and political philosophy, and her books include Freedom: A Coherence Theory (1992) and Virtue Ethics: A Pluralistic View (2003). liezl van zyl is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Ethics at the University of Waikato. She is the author of Death and Compassion (2000), as well as numerous articles on virtue ethics, with a particular focus on applied ethics and theories of right action. matt zwolinski is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Codirector of the Institute for Law and Philosophy at the University of San Diego. He has published numerous articles on issues at the intersection of ethics, politics, business, and economics, often focusing on liberty or exploitation. He is the author of A Brief History of Libertarianism (with John Tomasi, forthcoming), and has edited Arguing About Political Philosophy (2009).
acknowledgments I would like to thank all of the authors who have contributed to this volume, for lending not only their expertise but also their enthusiasm to its creation. I also thank the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University for generous financial support during the editing of the majority of the chapters included here. Very special thanks are due to Hilary Gaskin and Anna Lowe of Cambridge University Press, for their unflagging support and excellent guidance throughout the preparation of this volume. Thanks also to Julia Annas for assistance in selecting a cover image suitable for a volume on such a heterogeneous field as virtue ethics. Lastly, my greatest thanks go to my wife, Gina Russell, and our daughters Jocelyn, Grace, and Julia, for their support while I put this volume together, all while shifting between Wichita, Bowling Green, Tucson, and Melbourne. xiii
figures 10.1 Population size and average quality of life. page 226 10.2 Quality of life and increasing population size. 227 xiv