Abstract

The analogy between virtue and skill is well-known from the ancient Greek ethical tradition, and in Intelligent Virtue, Julia Annas makes a compelling case for its continued relevance to contemporary theory. Yet scant attention gets paid to the kind of skill to which virtue is most appropriately analogized. An insufficiently nuanced view of skill, I contend, renders the analogy less illuminating than it otherwise might be, and prevents virtue ethicists from making optimal use of the analogy. In this paper, I argue that embodied skill provides a particularly apt analogy for Aristotelian virtue in several important respects, and that it successfully captures the central features of Annas’ view while excluding skills that are problematically disanalogous to virtue. Moreover, I suggest that the refined analogy can help clarify some issues regarding deliberation, decision, and actions done on the spur of the moment.