The purpose of this chapter is two-fold. In Part A we explain some key aspects of virtue ethics e.g. including eudaimonia (the good life), the concept of the virtues and the development of stable character traits. For space reasons this will be very brief but should provide some theoretical background for the more general discussion in this book. To be clear, this is not intended as an authoritative, or exegetic, reading of Aristotle. Rather, our aspiration is to suggest that many of the ideas in the Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle’s central work on ethics) make for a highly useful approach to modern moral problems. In Part B we focus on epistemic virtues, both traditional and modern, and provide examples of their role in decision-making. We also show how the cognitive improvements from previous chapters can both increase the commitment to the type of life described by Aristotle, and boost the capacity for cultivation the necessary epistemic virtues.
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