ABSTRACT
Everyone knows—at least everyone here knows—that Western virtue ethics and Confucian thought have a great deal in common. But, of course, there are some important differences too. Aristotle, for example, believed in a strong doctrine of the unity of the virtues—to have one virtue, one must have them all—and there is reason to think that Confucius, at least, didn't subscribe to such a doctrine. At any rate, that is how Analects 14.4 has often been interpreted. Other Confucians seem to have held to something like the unity doctrine, but, interestingly enough, some Western Aristotelians, notably Peter Geach (1977, 160–68), have denied the unity doctrine.
