An important idea in virtue ethics is the focus on character rather than rules or intuition.  One of the primary ways we begin to identify with good and bad character is through stories.  According to William K Kilpatrick, Professor of Education at Boston College, " Moral principles take on a reality in stories that they lack in purely logical form." 

It is on thing to say murder is immoral, it is quite another to see a film, read a book or even view a news story that highlights a vicious murder plot i.e. Schindler's List.  There is something of a deeper truth to our moral axioms when we see them played or lived out before us.

Michael Martin

TOTT