There are many people we wish to thank for their support in the course of writing this book. Work on the book began during 1992–3, with the help of a Large Research Grant from the Australian Research Council. We are grateful to the ARC for supporting this project from the outset. For his encouragement and enthusiasm about the project from the beginning, and for his helpful comments on the work in progress (especially in the early stages) we would like to thank Michael Smith. Michael's interest in the project helped to get it off the ground, and he has been an inspiration to us both, as he has been to many of his colleagues and students. For his detailed and incisive comments on every chapter, several times over, we are deeply indebted to John Campbell. John read our drafts very carefully, and his feedback was extremely valuable. He helped us refine our arguments at many points, and raised many useful questions about virtue ethics that would not otherwise have occurred to us. Warm thanks are also owed to Jennifer Radden for her valuable and stimulating comments on the entire typescript. Two anonymous readers for Cambridge University Press also provided very extensive comments on the penultimate draft, and their detailed suggestions resulted in many improvements to the typescript.