Virtue ethics in relation to Kantian ethics: an opinionated overview and commentary

Abstract

This chapter offers a historical and introductory overview of contemporary virtue ethics. It suggests that many of the criticisms from which contemporary virtue ethics emerged as an alternative approach are less apt as criticisms of utilitarianism or Kantian ethics than as criticisms of the current state of moral philosophy. The chapter provides a map for the novice, situating virtue ethics in relation to care ethics. It analyzes the obstacles to addressing the question of whether Kantian ethics and virtue ethics are compatible, and examines some threads of the critique of modern ethics. Christine Swanton's Virtue Ethics: A Pluralistic View spares one the task of working through the now vast literature to figure out whether the various theories or approaches that their authors call virtue ethics have something in common, something that warrants saying there is indeed something that constitutes virtue ethics.