Virtue, Vice, and Value

"What are virtue and vice, and how do they relate to other moral properties such as goodness and rightness? Thomas Hurka defends a perfectionist account of virtue and vice that gives distinctive answers to these questions. His account treats the virtues as higher-level intrinsic goods, ones that involve morally appropriate attitudes to other, independent goods and evils. Virtue by itself makes a person's life better, but in a way that depends on the goodness of other things." "This account was accepted by many early 20th-century philosophers, including Brentano, Moore, Rashdall, and Ross. Hurka elaborates it further than has been done before, describing its mathematical structure, connecting it to individual virtues and vices, and applying it to specific issues such as the morality of fantasy and the proper roles of private charity and the welfare state. While doing so, he argues for its superiority over rival accounts of virtue, including those defended under the heading of virtue ethics. Virtue, Vice, and Value makes a novel contribution to virtue theory and the theory of value, defending views unlike those most discussed in contemporary ethics."--Jacket.