its not that virtue ethicists today would accept aristotle's particular understanding of human nature and by consequence his table of virtues but rather that they are willing to pursue the virtues via an understanding of man qua animal which macintyre rejects that is the project of virtue ethics today is not just the uncovering of one's social roles and an embodiment of the excellences which one's social narrative provides as macintyre conceives of it in after virtue most contemporary virtue ethicists would object to such a socially situated view of human nature and instead favor a return to the aristotelian project of examining the essential nature of man it seems to me that macintyre is more important in the development of communitarian philosophy for which his virtue ethics was tailored besides gem anscombe wrote the article modern moral philosophy in which it seems to me is what really kicked things off for contemporary virtue ethics