Virtue Ethics, Dialogue, and “Reverence”

Abstract

Contemporary theorizing about virtue in philosophy and social theory broadly includes not only virtue ethics but stimulating new perspectives on dialogue and fresh thinking about implacable human limitations. Taken together, these ideas outline a credible alternative to dogmatism, objectivism, and relativism in a pluralistic modern context. They also offer promising leads for rethinking social inquiry in such a context for an approach to inquiry that, in Alasdair Mac Intyre’s words, allows us to affirm “moral pluralism without moral relativism.”