Exploring the history of the cardinal virtues from patristic times to the late fourteenth century, this book offers a comprehensive view of the development of moral debate in the Latin Middle Ages.

The contributors to this volume examine the diverse roles played by moral virtues in the political writings of the Later Middle Ages. Medieval political thought has a long tradition of scholarship, and its ethical dimension has always received sustained attention. This volume specifically concentrates on the meaning and function of virtues in a political context, a theme which has thus far been neglected. The authors deal with Latin texts (occasionally in combination with vernacular ones) from the 13th to 15th centuries that define, legitimize, or criticize secular rule by using catalogues of virtues, originating from ancient philosophy as well as Christian moral theology. The medieval texts under discussion are of French, German, English, Italian, and Spanish origin, and vary from educational treatises and historiography to moral theology and political philosophy.

This collection surveys the tradition of medieval commentaries on Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics" from its thirteenth-century origins to the fifteenth century, concentrating on the conception of the moral and intellectual virtues in a continuous interplay of ancient and Christian moral thought.

"These translations from the Latin works of Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, and Philip the Chancellor concentrate on the four cardinal virtues - prudence, justice, courage, and temperance - first identified by Plato as essential requirements for living a happy and morally good life." "An historical introduction traces the development of the doctrine of four cardinal virtues from Greek philosophy through the thirteenth century. The treatment isolates three stages in this development: (1) Greek and Roman Philosophi: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, early Stoics, Cicero, and Seneca; (2) early Christian Sancti: Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory; and (3) medieval schoolmen (Magistri): Master Peter Lombard, Philip the Chancellor, Albert, and Aquinas."--BOOK JACKET

This volume addresses the history, future and contemporary application of virtue ethics.

"Daniel Randolph Deal is a Southern aristocrat, having the required bloodline, but little of the nobility. A man resistant to the folly of ethics, he prefers a selective, self-indulgent morality. He is a confessed hedonist, albeit responsibly so."--Back cover