Virtue Ethics - Contemporary 'Aretaic Turn'

Contemporary 'Aretaic Turn'

Although some Enlightenment philosophers (e.g. Hume) continued to emphasize the virtues, with the ascendancy of utilitarianism and deontology, virtue theory moved to the margins of Western philosophy. The contemporary revival of virtue theory is frequently traced to the philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe's 1958 essay, 'Modern Moral Philosophy'. Following this:

• the 1976 paper "The Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories," Michael Stocker summarises the main aretaic criticisms of deontological and consequentialist ethics.
• Philippa Foot, who published a collection of essays in 1978 entitled Virtues and Vices.
• Alasdair MacIntyre has made an effort to reconstruct a virtue-based theory in dialogue with the problems of modern and postmodern thought; his works include After Virtue and Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry.
• Paul Ricoeur has accorded an important place to Aristotelian teleological ethics in his hermeneutical phenomenology of the subject, most notably in his book Oneself as Another.
• theologian Stanley Hauerwas has also found the language of virtue quite helpful in his own project.
• Rosalind Hursthouse has published On Virtue Ethics.
• Roger Crisp and Michael Slote have edited a collection of important essays titled Virtue Ethics
• Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen have employed virtue theory in theorizing the capability approach to international development.

The aretaic turn in moral philosophy is paralleled by analogous developments in other philosophical disciplines. One of these is epistemology, where a distinctive virtue epistemology has been developed by Linda Zagzebski and others. In political theory, there has been discussion of "virtue politics," and in legal theory, there is a small but growing body of literature on virtue jurisprudence. The aretaic turn also exists in American constitutional theory, where proponents argue for an emphasis on virtue and vice of constitutional adjudicators.

Aretaic approaches to morality, epistemology, and jurisprudence have been the subject of intense debates. One criticism that is frequently made focuses on the problem of guidance; opponents, such as Robert Louden in his seminal article "Some Vices of Virtue Ethics," question whether the idea of a virtuous moral actor, believer, or judge can provide the guidance necessary for action, belief formation, or the decision of legal disputes.