This article is an inquiry on the preliminary look of the "virtue-ethics-oriented" philosophical counseling from the perspective of MacIntyre's virtue ethics. First of all, from the common starting point of counseling, we point out that the client's painful experience contains ethical elements. Ethics is not only a norm or constraint but also possibly a cause and element of pain, and even a strategy of therapy. Philosophical counseling is always concerned with one's situational and ethical relationships, and the virtue ethics can provided theoretical foundation and practical principles for philosophical counseling. As a mode of ethical practice, philosophical counseling is to focus on the client's situation through philosophical dialogue, abstract the ethical and moral elements from it, clarify the social network where the client is tangled within, and then objectify it to make the client have an insight of where and how he or she is deeply trapped. Then the counselor can analyze how the difficult situation is caused or formed so as to contemplate philosophically on it further or formulate once again the client's belief system. Here, through MacIntyre's virtue ethics, we illustrate how the close relationship between ethics and ethical practice is helpful regarding the contemplation or formulation of the client belief system. And, particularly with regards to the practice of counseling, what counseling principles and practical wisdom can the virtue ethics provide?
