Scotus’s teachings on moral virtue have attracted little attention, in part because there is no single text where he presents them systematically, in part because scholars tend to associate Scotus with the ethics of freedom and right reason. Even those sympathetic to his views report, with apparent regret, his move away from the virtue-centered Aristotelian model of ethics. This chapter attempts to explain the various roles that virtues do and do not play in his ethical theory. While Aristotle receives his share of criticism, so, too, does Augustine.

THIRTEENTH-CENTURY ETHICS: A LARGE, CONFUSING LEGACY

Ancient ethics takes as its starting point questions about the happiest human life and the virtues needed to live such a life. Virtues are thought to be dispositions developed only through many years of learning and practice, beginning in childhood. Vices, too, are dispositions; and like virtues, they gradually become “second nature” to the individual. For this reason Aristotle describes moral character as impossible, or at least exceedingly difficult, to change. His definition of moral virtue as a disposition concerned with choice does not imply, then, that people always remain free to choose actions “out of character.”