Radical Virtues: Moral Wisdom and the Ethics of Contemporary Life

What is a good life? What does it mean to be a good person? Richard White answers these questions by considering aspects of moral goodness through the virtues: courage, temperance, justice, compassion and wisdom. White explores how moral virtues affect and support social movements such as pacifism, environmentalism, multiculturalism, and animal rights. Drawing on the works of Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Nietzsche and others, White's philosophical treatment of virtue ethics is extended through historical and cross-cultural analysis, and he examines the lives of Socrates, Buddha, and Gandhi who lived virtuous lives to help the reader understand and acquire moral wisdom.