Virtue Ethics

Covers Aristotle: Virtue And Character Problems With A Virtue Ethic

Know that Aristotle thinks the aim or goal of human life is Happiness and that happiness differs for Aristotle from pleasure

Aristotle thinks the aim or goal of human life=Happiness ___ happiness differs for Aristotle from pleasure

Know what Aristotle identifies as the function of an object: that which it alone can do or which it does best     

just know this is how Aristotle defines the function of an object  

Know what Aristotle identifies as the function of a human being – to live a life of self-directed rational activity

just know this is what Aristotle says is the function of a human being 

Know that Aristotle thinks the virtues aid in the excellent functioning of an object:

durability, sharpness, balance, etc

virtue itself is the mean between two extremes of excess and deficiency

courage, rashness(foolishness), and deficiency

be able to explain this in terms of courage where the excess is foolishness and the deficiency is cowardice and courage is the in between point between them

Know that the mean is relativized to the individual and not a mathematical mean

the mean of an individual is relativized not mathematical

Know the general moral principle for a virtue ethics

An action a is right if and only if it is an action a fully virtuous person would perform

Know how Aristotle claims we become virtuous

through practice and imitating or following others who already are 

What are the three problems raised for virtue ethics

applied ethics, tragic humans, moral backsliding

explain the problem virtue ethics has with applied ethics

The first problem arises in connection with applied ethics. Focusing on long terms character issues rather than discrete actions the Virtue theorist has difficulty in the area of applied ethics

explain the problem of tragic humans

that one could be fully virtuous and still perform wrong actions as Oedipus does

explain the problem of moral backsliding

It is that a virtue ethics is “unable to assess correctly the occasional and inevitable tragic outcomes of human action.”

In “Why Abortion is Immoral” Don Marquis argues that what makes an act of killing wrong is that is denies an entity a future like ours. What is a future like ours?

a future of experience, activities, projects, and enjoyments

In class we considered several criticisms of a virtue ethics. Briefly, explain any one criticism that we considered.

the problem of applied ethics – that a virtue theory has difficulty with saying what we should do on each and every occasion of action because none of us have a good enough notion of the fully virtuous person to be able to say what he or she would do on every occasion.