Centre for Neoplatonic Virtue Ethics > The Project

The Project

Virtue ethics is now regarded as a viable position within modern moral philosophy. In this context, ‘virtue’ refers to moral character, broadly speaking. Theories about virtues were standard in Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance moral philosophy, even in large parts of Enlightenment philosophy. Over the last two centuries, two other positions have marginalised this long tradition of virtue ethics, namely utilitarianism and deontology. However, recent moral philosophers have re-established virtue ethics as a philosophical theory about the good life and moral character, and virtue ethics is currently applied within areas such as pedagogy, psychology and health care.

Ancient virtue theory was formulated in various versions. Modern virtue theorists typically use one single version of Ancient virtue theory as their point of departure, namely that of Aristotle (384-322 BCE). Although his version was very important, it was not the only one existing. It was debated critically in Antiquity and the ensuing tradition, and other philosophers advanced alternative theories. The Neoplatonist Plotinus (205-270 CE), for instance, presented another version, which had considerable influence on Medieval and Renaissance moral philosophy.

In the present project, we examine this Neoplatonic variant of Ancient virtue theory and its influence on Medieval and Renaissance moral philosophy. The motivation is two-fold. First, Neoplatonic virtue theory is still uncharted territory in the history of philosophy, even though it had important ramifications in Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance thought. Second, an examination of Neoplatonic virtue theory, including its criticism of Aristotle’s virtue theory, may uncover problems inherent in modern virtue ethics inspired by Aristotle.

The project is supported by The Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation over a period of three years (2010-2012), and it is located at the Department of Philosophy, University of Copenhagen.