Includes bibliography and index

Much of the history of philosophy is the history of ethics. From Plato to Sartre, the great philosophers have returned to the central ethical questions of how, particularly if we are not religious, we are to live good lives; how is it appropriate and virtuous for us to behave, both to ourselves and to others? How are we to act when loyalty demands of us one response, honesty another? What are we to do when the demands of justice and compassion conflict?" "In addressing these questions, Andre Comte-Sponville's modestly titled A Short Treatise on the Great Virtues is at once a return to the mainstream of much of the Western philosophical tradition and an utterly original exploration of the timeless human virtues."--BOOK JACKET.