Why do I study virtues? Because they are the essential qualities for successful living. Success being conceived in terms of happiness as flourishing. Morality matters, and moral character matters. Game theoretic reasoning purports to show how the most optimal outcomes are generated when individuals communicate and cooperate. My problem with games theory is that it presumes the motivations of the individual players. It is the motivations of agents we need to change. Hence my emphasis on acquiring the virtues, developing moral character and transforming the relationships between individuals in society. I therefore define my work as a moral ecology. Morality, as conceived along the above lines, is the missing element in proposals to resolve our social and environmental crises. The problem at the moment is that we struggle to ally technical innovation and public policy with the necessary change in behaviour. Gandhi spoke disparagingly of dreaming of systems so perfect that no one would need to be good. Our reformers are dreaming of technologies so sophisticated and policies so perfect that we do not need to be good. That missing moral dimension will ensure that our knowledge and know-how will continue to misfire. My point is that we need to be good and that goodness, whilst inherent as potential, needs to be developed, actualised and exercised. We do this through acquiring the virtues.
Virtue is where our heart is, the things we talk about, the things we do. Our discipline to do that which is right and not be attached to the results.