Abstract

Three traditions--liberal individualism, neo-Aristotelianism (an ethics of the good or virtue), and an ethics of caring or love--occupy center stage in current normative ethics, emerging prominently, for example, in the liberalism versus communitarianism debate. Each of these can arguably be revised to accommodate insights from the others. Moreover, we can view moral traditions generally, or at least many traditions, as combinations of factors (rules of reason, goods and virtues, and affections) interpreted and related in various historical contexts. Finally, while the traditions as typologized here each attempt to identify a single source for morality, treating other factors as secondary, it may be that these traditions and others are, in fact, best seen as sets of interwoven and interdependent elements.