 Are virtues instrumental for other goods, or are they good in themselves? Are they good in themselves or because they promote our happiness? If they are instrumental, are they instrumental in respect of themselves, by causing virtue to grow in the holders of virtue and in those on whom they have influence? Or are they instrumental in helping us procure external goods for ourselves such as power or happiness? On the instrumentality of virtue there was an important dispute between Vlastos and Irwin.