ABSTRACT
Many thinkers have seen the turn to virtue ethics as a timely way out of the deadlock posed by the ongoing discussion between traditional moral stances such as Kantianism, theories of fundamental moral rights, and utilitarianism. Typical of virtue ethics is that it focuses on very general traits of character. Virtue ethics is often described in a manner that invites the interpretation that virtue ethics provides us with a statement of a criterion of rightness. However, the role of the professional virtues is derivative and not fundamental. Their content must be determined by a critical examination of the corresponding institution. If the 'situationist' experimental tradition in social and personality psychology is on the right track, then it seems as though behavioural variation across a population owes more to situational differences than dispositional differences among people.
