There are three interrelated problems that threaten the overall cogency and acceptability of contemporary virtue ethics as an ethical theory. These problems fall under three categories: (1) practical, (2) theoretical, and (3) epistemic. In the process of articulating these problems, the paper employs and offers cases from medicine and everyday life to bring to the fore significant issues that need to be addressed, most especially contemporary virtue ethics’ seeming inability to accommodate some intuitions that we have regarding what right actions (...) consist in. The paper also articulates the view that being virtuous, like being excellent, can be understood in terms of degrees. As stated earlier, the three problems are interrelated, thus, adherents of contemporary virtue ethics need a systematic approach through which these problems might be put to rest. (shrink)

[full article, abstract in English; only abstract in Lithuanian] This paper investigates a particular strategy for establishing the deep connection between metaphysics and logic using Aristotle’s principle of non-contradiction and the theory of predication. The decisive move, according to this strategy, is to formulate and interpret the said principle as a metaphysical principle. In this paper, it is argued that: despite the strategy’s initial appeal, a successful argument still needs to be made in order to fully establish that metaphysics and (...) logic are deeply connected, and the theory of predication is more fundamental than the principle of non-contradiction. The main reason for above is that the strategy is prone to a very powerful objection that Aristotle’s criterion of primary substance is inconsistent. The main reason for above is that the principle of non-contradiction itself is best explained using the theory of predication. In addition, it is the theory of predication that does all the important explanatory work in the context of Aristotle’s philosophical theory. (shrink)