ABSTRACT
Virtue is a dangerous concept. It is not only Karl Popper who was all too well aware of the atrocities that man has shown himself capable of perpetrating on his fellows all through history in the name of a greater Common Good. Across all cultures and generations, we have learned from repeated painful experience that the path that we tread when first we presume to know what is good for others leads naturally through paternalism to coercion and, ultimately, to the totalitarian state. Surely this way of thinking must be anathema for any self-respecting modern liberal?
