Intelligent Virtue

Intelligent Virtue presents a distinctive new account of virtue and happiness as central ethical ideas. Annas argues that exercising a virtue involves practical reasoning of a kind which can illuminatingly be compared to the kind of reasoning we find in someone exercising a practical skill. Rather than asking at the start how virtues relate to rules, principles, maximizing, or a final end, we should look at the way in which the acquisition and exercise ofvirtue can be seen to be in many ways like the acquisition and exercise of more mundane activities, such as farming, building or playing the piano. This helps us to see virtue as part of an agent's happiness orflourishing, and as constituting (wholly, or in part) that happiness. We are offered a better understanding of the relation between virtue as an ideal and virtue in everyday life, and the relation between being virtuous and doing the right thing.

“written with such lucid simplicity that any reader of the TLS who has been sufficiently interested to read this far should find it enjoyable, instructive and inspiring”

Intelligent Virtue is engaging, stimulating, and suggestive. Anyone interested in eudaimonist virtue approaches to ethics will be rewarded by giving it a careful readespecially critics, whose arguments against such approaches are often off-target. A careful, attentive, and sympathetic read of Intelligent Virtue will not only be rewarding for its own sake, but will help critics formulate more appropriate criticisms of eudaimonist virtue approaches. Anne Baril, Mind
Rosalind Hursthouse, Times Literary Supplement
an attractive account both of what virtue is and how it is connected to happiness and the good. The Aristotelian picture Annas provides is appealing in its own right, and because of its clarity and accessibility is also especially useful as an introduction to virtue and eudaimonism for those who teach about ethics Erica Lucast Stonestreet, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
With direct and simple prose, and a refreshingly unpretentious tone ... the connections Annas forges between virtue and happiness (eudaimonia) are fascinating ... Intelligent Virtue is all the more worth reading precisely because it does invite us to engage in a critical dialogue with the themes and ideas it proffers. Let us then recline in comfort, open a bottle of fine Italian and be part of the conversation. Bene Vita! Brian K. Cameron, Philosophy in Review
essential reading for anyone interested in defending (or criticizing) eudaimonist, virtue-centered ethical theories ... is sure to set the agenda for the development of such theories in the years to come. ... Intelligent Virtue is engaging, stimulating, and suggestive. Anyone interested in eudaimonist virtue apporaches to ethics will be rewarded by giving it a careful read - especially critics, whose arguments against such approaches are often off-target. A careful, attentive, and sympathetic read of Intelligent Virtue will not only be rewarding for its own sake, but will help critics formulate more appropriate criticisms of eudaimonist virtue approaches. Anne Baril, Mind

Julia Annas has taught at the University of Arizona since 1986. Before that she taught at the University of Oxford (St Hugh's College) and she has also taught at Columbia University. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford. She has been a Senior Fellow of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington DC and President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association 2004-5, andhas an honorary doctorate from the University of Uppsala. Annas has written a number of books and articles over a wide range of ancient philosophy, from Plato to the Hellenistic period, including AnIntroduction to Plato's Republic (1981), The Morality of Happiness (1993), and Platonic Ethics Old and New (1999). She is now working on virtue and law in ancient thought.

Intelligent Virtue presents a distinctive new account of virtue and happiness as central ethical ideas. Annas argues that exercising a virtue involves practical reasoning of a kind which can illuminatingly be compared to the kind of reasoning we find in someone exercising a practical skill. Rather than asking at the start how virtues relate to rules, principles, maximizing, or a final end, we should look at the way in which the acquisition and exercise ofvirtue can be seen to be in many ways like the acquisition and exercise of more mundane activities, such as farming, building or playing the piano. This helps us to see virtue as part of an agent's happiness or flourishing, and as constituting (wholly, or in part) that happiness. We are offered a betterunderstanding of the relation between virtue as an ideal and virtue in everyday life, and the relation between being virtuous and doing the right thing.

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