Contemporary Virtue-Ethical Accounts of Right Action

Abstract

A longstanding objection to contemporary virtue ethics is that it cannot adequately account for the rightness of action. Promising to silence this objection, a variety of accounts of right action have been developed and defended by virtue ethicists in recent years. This thesis examines both the nature of virtue ethics and the adequacy of virtue-ethical accounts of right action. Focusing on the three most prominent virtue-ethical accounts of right action – Michael Slote’s agent-based account, Rosalind Hursthouse’s qualified-agent account, and Christine Swanton’s target-centered account – it argues that a modified version of the targetcentered account is most plausible.