A Study On Anscombe’s Virtue Ethical Thoughts

In 1958, Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe(1919-2001) published her famous virtue ethical paper Modern Moral Philosophy(MMP for short), in which she profoundly analyzed and criticized the center problem of western ethical theories, i.e. the promulgation problem. In MMP, She began with Hume’s famous remark on the transition from is to ought, and ended with Aristotle’s virtues. In the meantime came her profound critics on deontology and consequentialism. She claimed both had mistakes in the use of some words to demonstrate their virtual theories, owing to a careless dealt with the promulgation problem. She somewhat pointed out a possible direction- which I call Anscombe’s "three steps to go" strategy, for future ethical studies. First, abandoned endless rules and talked about actions, reasons and human nature to gain a sound philosophy of psychology. Only then, can we really be able to make sense of our moral language, especially those words about obligation, morally ought and good, etc. Once we cleaned up misunderstandings in the language, satisfying moral systems would be built and could ensure good moral practice.Anscombe was the first to bring Aristotelian ethics back into ethical studies. She stressed on the importance of characteristics in moral judgments and the study of virtues in moral philosophy. This paper intends to use the concept "virtue" as a clue to introduce her ethical thoughts on moral practice, moral language and moral psychology, in order to make it clear that she is the real pioneer of contemporary western virtue ethics. As far as this conclusion can be made, I hope Anscombe’s virtue ethical thoughts would contribute great insights to our globalized vision of ethical study and the domestic Confucianism revival on social moral constructions.