Understanding the complexity of moral virtue and the perspective that informs it requires attention to the substance and order of Aristotle's discussion of the particular virtues in the Nicomachean Ethics. It is necessary, before turning to this discussion, to address a couple of objections to this claim, objections represented by the strong statement of Sir David Ross and largely responsible for a general neglect of the virtues:

Such a view would supply a good reason for the neglect of the particular virtues, and while students of Aristotle rarely subscribe to the whole of Ross's view, many assume the validity of some part of it. The full case against this position requires the substantive examination of the virtues (cf. NE 1107b14–16, 20–1, 1108a1–2), yet it is possible to address the main propositions in a prefatory way by speaking first to the question of the organization and order of the list and then to the connection of the virtues to Greek convention.