Volume 44, 1998
Theoretical Ethics
Moira M. Walsh
Pages 272-276
The Relationship of Freedom to the Acquisition, Possession, and Exercise of Virtue
There are three common objections that any broadly Aristotelian virtue theorist must face, insofar as he or she holds that acts must be performed from a firm and stable disposition in order to express virtue, and that virtue is in some way a praiseworthy fulfillment of human potential. Each of these objections accuses the virtuous person of not fully exercising his or her rationality and freedom, and thus of being somehow less than fully human.