The Virtue Ethics of Hume and Nietzsche

Christine Swanton s careful reading of Hume and Nietzsche as virtue
ethicists is both original and compelling. This foundational work significantly
advances scholarship in virtue ethics, paving the way for a viable alternative
to Aristotelianism.

Liezl van Zyl, University of Waikato

In this book, Christine Swanton continues to expand our conception of virtue
ethics. She combines her characteristic precision with textual attentiveness to
interpret both Hume and Nietzsche as response dependence theorists. The result
is bold and refreshing as she showcases the enduring legacies of both philosophers
and their relevance for recent developments in philosophical ethics.

Jacqueline Taylor, University of California, San Francisco

Preface ix

Introduction xi

Part I: A Virtue Ethical Map 1

Chapter 1 Interpretation as a Map 3

Chapter 2 Hume and Nietzsche as Response Dependence Virtue Ethicists 19

Part II: The Virtue Ethics of Hume 43

Chapter 3 Can Hume Be Both a Sentimentalist and a Virtue Ethicist? 45

Chapter 4 Hume and the Problem of Justice as a Virtue 70

Chapter 5 What Kind of Virtue Ethicist Is Hume? 87

Part III: The Virtue Ethics of Nietzsche 109

Chapter 6 Can Nietzsche Be Both a Virtue Ethicist and an Egoist? 111

Chapter 7 Can Nietzsche Be Both a Virtue Ethicist and an Existentialist? 135

Chapter 8 What Kind of Virtue Ethicist Is Nietzsche? 157

Part IV: New Directions 179

Chapter 9 Humean Virtue Ethics: Virtue Ethics of Love 181

Chapter 10 Nietzschean Virtue Ethics: Virtue Ethics of Becoming 195

Bibliography 212

Index 222

Christine Swanton is a philosopher in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Auckland. She is the author of Virtue Ethics: A Pluralist View (2005), Freedom: A Coherence Theory (1992), and has contributed numerous articles to journals and reference works. She is regarded as one of the leading academic figures currently working within the field of virtue ethics.