Julia Annas wrote her important book “The Morality of Happiness” in 1995, in which she presented a thorough analysis of ancient eudemonistic, virtue ethics. In “Intelligent Virtue”, written in 2011, she develops the idea of virtue and happiness as central ethical concepts: in simple words, virtue, as stated by Aristotle, is the way to have a happy life.
The book is written in a very modern and attractive. She tries to explain that acquiring and exercising virtue may be compared to acquiring and exercising a practical skill such as tennis or piano playing. This approach offers insightful explanations about what a true virtue is: like skills virtues also involve “the need to learn” and “the drive to aspire.” In other words, virtue is not just about growing “will muscle; they also intelligence in their development from natural tendencies and feelings. Overall, Annas’ account of virtue, centered on the analogy to practical skills, provides a wonderful, unifying and modern argument in support of the Aristotelian virtue theories.