This paper is an attempt to approach virtue ethics as a cultural and historical phenomenon, which can be subject to comparative analysis. It discusses methodology suggested by Sergius Hessen in his essay “On the Platonic and Evangelical Virtues” presented at the Warsaw Historical Society in 1939. Hessen referred to the fresco by Rafael Santi “Virtues and the Law” as an illustration of the concept of Christian Platonism. He was inspired by the findings of art historian Edgar Wind, who noticed that Raphael did not only paint Plato’s theory of virtues, but also placed the symbols of Christian virtues in the same fresco. Hessen’s analysis provides us with some guidelines for the comparative analysis of various ethical concepts of the ancient time and modernity.
     

virtue ethics, Christian Platonism, comparative ethics