What is the relevance of ancient discussions of character and the
good life to contemporary ethical and political reflection?
Starting approximately 25 years ago with the publication of Alasdair
MacIntyre’s After Virtue, an influential movement in philosophical
and religious ethics has developed that advocates making the study
of character, virtue, culture, and tradition central in ethics, and
arguably politics as well.  While originally focused on “retrieving”
pre-modern notions of virtue from ancient Western philosophy, later
proponents of this movement have attended to similar concerns in
Christian and Confucian traditions, modern Western figures such as
Hume, Kant, and Dewey, democratic writers such as Walt Whitman, and
contemporary versions of a feminist ethics of care.  Part of what
makes virtue ethics fascinating is the way its champions range
across personal and historical narrative, philosophical argument,
cultural criticism, religious polemic, and political debate.  This
course will survey this varied landscape, noting both high and low
points.  Main topics of debate will include: divergent assessments
of the moral resources of the modern West; the relations of “human
nature,” tradition, and ethics; whether or not there might be a
single, universal list of the most important virtues and vices;
advantages and disadvantages for ethics of focusing on character and
virtue rather than rights, duties, and consequences; whether
aristocratic and patriarchal accounts of the good life can be made
congruent with modern commitments to democracy and the equal dignity
of women and men.  As a seminar the course will emphasize
discussion.

Writing assignments: one short response paper, two 5-6 page
analytical papers, and a longer final paper.

Books:  After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, MacIntyre; Ordinary
Vices, Shklar; Democracy and Tradition, Stout; Aristotle:
Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Irwin; Mencius, trans. Lau; Pride and
Prejudice, Austen; Kant: The Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Gregor;
The Theory of the Moral Sentiments, Smith.