ABSTRACT
Faced with conflicts and uncertainties over the attitudes that should be adopted toward patterns of conduct, people from different cultures and in different periods in history have frequently resorted to the image of a measuring device to describe what they felt was needed. Three general types of measure have been recognized, and in Section 4.4 these were (following tradition) labeled the measures of right, of virtue and of the good. Measures of right are made in terms of antecedently specified forms (commonly expressed as rules or general imperatives) against which acts can be assessed. Measures of virtue are made by reference to what we would expect exemplary (virtuous) individuals to do, given the qualities (virtues) that they possess which make them people worthy of admiration and emulation. Measures of good are made in terms of an account of what as a whole we are trying to do with our lives-what it is to do well, live well, flourish, achieve eudaimonia, etc.—and how a pattern of conduct contributes to or interferes with that objective.
