The Virtue of Principle Ethics

Abstract

I raise four issues that militate against adopting virtue ethics as a guiding concept: (a) In the resolution of most ethics cases, virtue ethics is irrelevant; (b) there is substantial redundancy between virtue and principle ethics; (c) acting and deciding are unavoidable tasks for which principle ethics is particularly suitable; and (d) the emphasis on character and community wisdom increases the possibility of idiosyncratic and unsound decision making.