Advocating a particular form of virtue ethics for its intuitive and structural advantages over Kantianism, utilitarianism, and common-sense morality, Slote argues that a contemporarily plausible version of virtue ethics can be achieved only by abandoning specifically moral concepts for general aretaic notions like virtue.

"This book draws on...[Slote's] earlier ones, but it also advances many new and important arguments of its own. Indeed, it is rich enough to confirm Slote's status as one of the most important contemporary moral philosophers....As a whole, the book amounts to a defence of virtue ethics, but it is as important for its discussions of the other theories mentioned as it is for its development of virtue theory itself."--Mind "From Morality to Virtue...does important work...in helping to bring into constructive engagement thinking about the virtues with that on moral theory, and conversely. Given the decided lack of interaction between these two traditions, this is much to be praised."--Philosophy and Phenomenological Research "In presenting a systematic working out of what a virtue ethics would look like, Michael Slote has managed to meet a sceptical challenge to the whole enterprise. This is an important achievement since he has shown that in order to take the virtues seriously, one needn't treat them as peripheral to one's core moral theory; nor need one go the way of the anti-theorists. For this reason, From Morality to Virtue represents a step forward in virtue ethics."--Nous "Slote's book provides a much-needed systematic study of the overall structure of virtue ethics and its relation to other theories and develops his own original version of virtue ethics as a foundational theory. It is sure to begin a far more vigorous and incisive debate about virtue ethics than we have had hitherto."--Julia Annas, University of Arizona "Slote provides us with a view of ethics which enables us to ask better questions than we would otherwise be able to do both about the areas in which modern ethics is or could be hospitable to ancient concepts and about the areas in which it has broken its ties with its ancient predecessors more radically. He has written an excellent book."--Ancient Philosophy "This book draws on...[Slote's] earlier ones, but it also advances many new and important arguments of its own. Indeed, it is rich enough to confirm Slote's status as one of the most important contemporary moral philosophers....As a whole, the book amounts to a defence of virtue ethics, but it is as important for its discussions of the other theories mentioned as it is for its development of virtue theory itself."--Mind "From Morality to Virtue...does important work...in helping to bring into constructive engagement thinking about the virtues with that on moral theory, and conversely. Given the decided lack of interaction between these two traditions, this is much to be praised."--Philosophy and Phenomenological Research "In presenting a systematic working out of what a virtue ethics would look like, Michael Slote has managed to meet a sceptical challenge to the whole enterprise. This is an important achievement since he has shown that in order to take the virtues seriously, one needn't treat them as peripheral to one's core moral theory; nor need one go the way of the anti-theorists. For this reason, From Morality to Virtue represents a step forward in virtue ethics."--Nous "Slote's book provides a much-needed systematic study of the overall structure of virtue ethics and its relation to other theories and develops his own original version of virtue ethics as a foundational theory. It is sure to begin a far more vigorous and incisive debate about virtue ethics than we have had hitherto."--Julia Annas, University of Arizona "Slote provides us with a view of ethics which enables us to ask better questions than we would otherwise be able to do both about the areas in which modern ethics is or could be hospitable to ancient concepts and about the areas in which it has broken its ties with its ancient predecessors more radically. He has written an excellent book."--Ancient Philosophy "[An] ambitious and complex book....[This book] gives everyone interested in ethical theory much to ponder. Most notably, it suggests a wholly fresh way to pursue virtue ethics."--The Philosophical Review "This is a carefully written, well argued, mature introduction to virtue ethics."--Dr. Sal Fratantaro, Providence College