The second half of the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first were marked by a striking increase of interest in neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics and, more generally, in the question of the significance of virtue. What is at stake in this turn toward virtue? Is it at bottom nothing more than the articulation of a new approach in ethics to be set alongside utilitarian and Kantian approaches? Or does it call for a radical re-evaluation of deeply entrenched assumptions about moral thought and action? In this course, we will consider the writings of moral philosophers who present their stress on virtue as a call for a revolution in ethics. We will also pay close attention to the political and historical context for this revolutionary event. Our emphasis will be on works by Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe and Philippa Foot, three of the twentieth century’s great moral philosophers (and also: three of its great women philosophers). We will also read work by Julia Annas, Annette Baier, Cora Diamond, Alisdair McIntyre, John McDowell, Michael Thompson, David Wiggins, and Bernard Williams.