Howard J. Curzer received both BA and MA degrees in mathematics from Wesleyan University and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin. He has taught at Texas Tech University since 1985. In addition to Aristotle's ethical theory, he has published or presented papers on virtue ethics, measurement of moral development, the ethics of wildlife research, the ethics of care, biomedical ethics, and ethics within the Confucian tradition.

"This is a terrific book. It challenges many well-established readings of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (NE) and offers inventive re-interpretations in their places. There is insight on almost every page. But most of all, the Aristotle that emerges from Curzer's interpretation seems extraordinarily humane, and equally astute. In addition to showing how each of (ethical) virtues fleshes out and accords with the doctrines that comprise Aristotle's architectonic, Curzer spends much time on the various 'failure modes' of each virtue and on the full range of character types (from brutish to heroically virtuous) and on how we develop from one to the next. As a result of Curzer's book we can read the NE not as a foundational but discarded source for a type of ethical framework--virtue ethics--but as a source of practical instruction in living well."--Cathal Woods, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"It is pleasingly rich and accessible, elegantly written, and attentive to the fine points of Aristotle's argument. It also contains a number of charts that will prove useful to the new reader." -- Mind

"Howard Curzer's Aristotle and the Virtues offers a formidable defense of Aristotle's accounts of the virtues against contemporary criticisms. Curzer maintains that Aristotle gradually unfolds his ethical theory in his treatment of individual virtues, and his own book follows suit." -- American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly