Abstract

This dissertation consists of detailed, original study of the primary texts in the classical virtue tradition as represented by Plato and Aristotle , and a detailed, original study of Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue, the most significant contemporary work in virtue-based ethical theory. ;From my study of Plato and Aristotle, I have identified a three-part analytical scheme for interpretation which captures all the essential elements of virtue-based normative theory of conduct as it was originally expounded. This scheme provides a unified structure to my study of the three philosophers. I present a detailed analysis of the concepts of virtue and a virtue from the perspective of the theoretical role these concepts play in a virtue-based theory of ethics . No other such study presently exists. ;MacIntyre claims to have offered a "reconstructed aristotelian" morality of the virtues. In my study of his work I show the full extent of his inheritance of the classical virtue tradition, and I identify and characterize not only the aristotelian but also the platonic strands in his theory. No other study exists which has noted the depth and extent of the platonic elements in MacIntyre's theory, or the significance of the integration of platonic and aristotelian elements for an adequate virtue-based theory. ;The primary contribution of this work to moral philosophy is a fully integrated and extensive interpretive study in which I identify and clarify the essential elements of the concept of virtue in the platonic and aristotelian virtue traditions. My work provides a solid ground on which to continue contemporary efforts to construct virtue-based theories, and alternatively, a solid ground for criticizing such efforts