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Making a Necessity of Virtue
Recent moral philosophy has seen a revival of interest in the concept of virtue, and with it a reassessment of the role of virtue in the work of Aristotle and Kant. This book brings that reassessment to a new level of sophistication. Nancy Sherman argues that Kant preserves a notion of virtue in his moral theory that bears recognizable traces of the Aristotelian and Stoic traditions, and that his complex anthropology of morals brings him into surprising alliance with Aristotle. She develops her argument through close readings of major texts by both Aristotle and Kant, illustrating points of congruence and contrast.
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"This book is the first to offer a detailed analysis of Aristotelian and Kantian ethics together in a way that remains faithful to the texts and responsive to debates in contemporary ethics....the book presents a dialogue between Aristotle and Kant that sheds light on contemporary debates about the importance of general principals..."
"Despite this omission, Sherman's study makes a valuable contribution to the growing literature on Kant's theory of virtue and its place in the history of ethics alongside Greek, and especially Aristotelian, conceptions of virtue. Students of Kant, Aristotle, and the history of ethics should study Sherman's book with interest and profit." —The Philosophical Review