A dazzling debut about the power of family and the pain of betrayal set within Manhattan's Fifth Avenue apartments, the opulent mansions of the new Moscow, and the pre-revolutionary palaces of Saint Petersburg. Sasha Ozerovsky is a young expert in Russian art at Leighton's, an exclusive Manhattan auction house. When a dealer arrives from Moscow with an exquisite 1913 Fabergé figurine, Sasha immediately recognizes a rare masterpiece. But in the high stakes art world, the price of an object is tied to its history. If Sasha can determine for whom the bejeweled piece was made and where it has been hiding for the past century, its value -- and Sasha's career -- will soar. But as Sasha moves between New York's high society and Russia's new rich, he discovers that the piece once belonged to his family, and he must face questions about their past that he never dared to ask. Superbly plotted and evoking the elegance of Russia's gilded age, Object of Virtue is an enthralling tale that explores what happens to a family torn between vanity and virtue.

"Virtue ethics has attracted a lot of attention and there has been considerable interest in virtue epistemology as an alternative to traditional approaches in that field. This book fills a gap in the literature for a text that brings virtue epistemologists and virtue ethicists together."-- Back cover.

Aquinas on Virtue is an original interpretation of one of the most compelling accounts of virtue in the Western tradition, that of the great theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas. This book offers a systematic analysis of Aquinas on the nature, genesis, and role of virtue in human life.

Hurka's book puts forth a comprehensive theoretical account of moral virtue and vice. More specifically, it gives an account of the intrinsic goodness of virtue, and intrinsic evil of vice, that can fit into a consequentialist moral theory.

Inner virtue and vice -- Pleasure -- Emotion -- Attention -- The relevance of inner virtue

You are what you own. So believed many of the elite men and women of Renaissance Italy. The notion that a person's belongings transmit something about their personal history, status, and "character" was renewed in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Objects of Virtue explores the multiple meanings and values of the objects with which families like the Medici, Este, and Gonzaga surrounded themselves. This lavishly illustrated volume examines the complicated relationships between the so-called "fine arts"--painting and sculpture--and artifacts of other kinds for which artistry might be as important as utility-furniture, jewelry, and vessels made of gold, silver, and bronze, precious and semi-precious stone, glass, and ceramic. The works discussed were designed and made by artists as famous as Andrea Mantegna, Raphael, and Michelangelo, as well as by lesser-known specialists--goldsmiths, gem-engravers, glassmakers, and maiolica painters.