Daniel J. DALY. The Structures of Virtue and Vice. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2021. Pp. 244. $44.95. ISBN 978-1-64712-039-9. Reviewed by Leo MADDEN, Ohio Dominican University, Columbus, OH 43219.

The market in Virtues and Vices is booming. One sees the interest everywhere, from scholarly literature to essays in more popular journals, from church sermons to casual conversations among friends and within families. While the topic of course traces back to the foundational work of Aristotle, one can date its revival to Alisdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue (University of Notre Dame Press, 1981); the publication of a third edition in 2007 is just one indication of its seminal and continued influence among philosophers, theologians, political theorists, and the general public.

The present volume addresses a weakness in much of the discussion about virtues and vices: while in most cases such a discussion focuses on the lone individual who forms character, makes decisions, and rationalizes upon decisions taken, what is lacking is an appreciation of the structures prevailing in social and economic life that are present at the moment of such decision-making, but are rarely treated systematically in the evaluation of those decisions.

The author, Daniel J. Daly, is associate professor of moral theology in the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College. The present work incorporates and expands upon two of his previous scholarly articles: “The Relationship of Virtues and Norms in the Summa Theologiae,” Heythrop Journal 51, no. 2 (2010: 214-229) and “Structures of Virtue and Vice,” New Blackfriars 92, no. 1039 (2011): 341-357.  Daly announces the purpose of the book on the first page:

This book is an attempt to forge a new ethical approach to issues of social structures – an approach that reimagines, from the ground up, how Catholic ethics might best analyze how social structures both shape the character of persons and influence the well-being of individuals and communities.

Part one of the book presents and diagnoses current trends in the scholarly literature on the matter of the influence of social structures upon the development of virtues and vices in an individual. Part two defines more precisely the author’s definition and understanding of social structures and moral agency. Part three advances and develops the author’s thesis.

The author’s perspective on these topics covers a wide range: chronologically, from Aristotle to Aquinas to the encyclicals of Pope Francis; ideologically, his work draws on perspectives and insights from a diverse range of religious and nonreligious sources. Importantly, for the sake of his audience, his methodology often invites the reader to ponder ethical dilemmas that touch upon present economic and social circumstances, such as the purchase of clothing that was manufactured under sweatshop conditions in a developing country.  
The heart of Daly’s work can be found in chapter 6, “Structures of Virtue and Vice.” Here the author walks the reader through the various manners by which already-existing structures in society or a local economy can aid the formation of virtues and vices in the character of an individual. Daly reminds the reader that circumstances play a role in character development and thus in the evaluation of the morality of a choices taken. Daly thus invites the reader to ponder the prudence of belonging to or relating to social structures that may prevent the development of virtues or that may promote the development of vices. In his discussion on these challenges facing us all, the author’s language could have been more challenging: to wit, there is nothing in life that obligates a person to remain in a situation where one would contribute to a vicious social structure. Indeed, in some cases, as taught by Pope Saint John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor (par. 89), the obligation upon the Christian to avoid manifestly sinful structures may lead to martyrdom.

This book would serve as a helpful and important guide in upper-level and graduate courses in Morality and Social Justice. For my part, this book has helped me to appreciate the wisdom of Pope Francis’s emphasis on the moral character of social and economic structures.