Virtue Ethics Notes

Virtue Ethics

Introduction

• Last lecture: Ethical dilemmas and difficult choices.

• This lecture: Cultivating virtuous characteristics – virtue ethics.

• Learning Objectives:

  • Define and understand virtue ethics.

  • Discuss the origin of virtue ethics.

  • Understand the three main strands of virtue ethics.

  • Articulate the habituation of virtue as a mean between two vices.

The Ultimate End of an Individual

• A question pondered by philosophers, theologians, and people throughout history.

• Delves into understanding our existence and purpose.

• Virtue Ethics Perspective:

  • Rooted in classical philosophy (Aristotle).

  • The ultimate end is eudaimonia (Greek word).

  • Eudaimonia translates to human flourishing or true happiness.

  • Not a fleeting emotion, but a state of well-being.

  • Achieved through cultivating virtue and exercising reason.

  • Living in accordance with our rational nature.

  • Achieving our full potential as human beings.

  • Living ethically with intellectual pursuit.

Aristotle's Three Ways to Achieve Happiness

• Fame.

• Pleasure.

• Rationality/Reasoning.

• Discussed in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, which explains eudaimonia.

• Eudaimonia is not a state of fleeting emotion.

• True happiness is achieved through a life lived in accordance with virtue and reason.

Fame

• Aristotle addresses the misconception that fame/honor is the ultimate path to happiness.

• Individuals in public life often strive for recognition and acclaim.

• Pursuit of fame shows instability and dependence on external factors.

• Fame depends on public opinion, which is unreliable.

• Happiness based on others' approval makes one vulnerable to changing perceptions.

• Seeking honor/fame signifies one's own excellence.

• Honor is not the ultimate good, but the underlying virtue/excellence that elicits it.

• Fame is merely a superficial reflection or by-product, rather than a substance of genuine happiness.

• There is a lack of self-sufficiency in fame.

• Aristotle advocates for true eudaimonia, which requires possessing intrinsic value.

Pleasure

• Aristotle examines pleasure as a potential source of happiness.

• Acknowledges pleasure as a natural part of human existence (e.g., food, clothing).

• Life solely devoted to gratification of bodily desires is fit for animals, not humans.

• Our unique capacity for reasoning elevates us above other creatures.

• Happiness must involve something more than simply satisfying appetites.

• Pleasure can accompany virtuous activities, but is not the end in itself.

• Seeking pleasure for its own sake can lead to excess and imbalances.

• Pleasant sensations are fleeting.

• Pursuit of pleasure can lead to a cycle of constant craving and dissatisfaction.

• True happiness is an enduring state, not a momentary feeling.

Rationality or Reasoning

• Highest and most complete path to happiness.

• Unique to humans; involves thinking well.

• Excellence is found in exercising our rational faculty.

• Involves intellectual contemplation and pursuit of knowledge.

• Theoretical Reasoning: Pursuit of knowledge.

• Practical Wisdom (phronesis): Guides moral choices and actions.

• Living a life guided by reason cultivates virtues (courage, temperance, justice, wisdom).

• Virtues are developed through consistent practice and habituation.

• Acting in accordance with reason and virtue fulfills our true nature.

• Realizing our full potential as human beings.

• Rational activity related to external goods leads to a comfortable life and eudaimonia.

• Dedicating to intellectual pursuit represents the highest form of happiness.

• True eudaimonia is achieved through consistent exercise of rationality.

• Cultivating a virtuous character.

The Human Soul's Faculties

• Central to philosophy and theology.

• Not a monolithic entity but with distinct faculties/powers.

• Division of the soul into two primary categories: irrational and rational.

• Bipartite division to understand human thought, emotion, and action.

Rational Faculty

• Fundamental to living beings.

• Intellectual capacity, reasoning, deliberation.

• Allows abstract thought, understanding universal truths, forming concepts, and making logical inferences.

• Aristotle distinguishes between:

  • Theoretical reasoning: Knowledge for its own sake.

  • Practical reasoning: Guiding actions and moral choices.

• Through our rational faculty, we grasp principles, weigh consequences, and consider what is good/right.

Irrational Faculty

• Operates without direct logical deliberation.

• Not necessarily contrary to reason.

• Divided into vegetative and appetitive faculties.

Aspects of Rational Faculty

• Intellectual: Concerned with knowledge and truth; pursuit of wisdom.

  • Intellectual virtues represent excellence in a specific domain of knowledge.

    • Scientific knowledge (episteme).

    • Art/craftsmanship (techne).

    • Intuitive intellect (nous).

    • Philosophical wisdom (Sophia).

    • Practical wisdom (phronesis).

  • Acquired through teaching, experience, and time.

• Moral: Concerned with character and actions.

  • Influenced by practical reasoning.

  • Involves character traits that enable us to feel and act in the right way.

  • Concept of the golden mean between extremes.

  • Developed through habituation and practice.

Relationship between Rational Faculties

• Mutual dependency.

• Intellectual virtues like philosophical wisdom require the stability provided by moral virtue.

• Without moral virtues, knowledge could be used destructively or undermined by uncontrolled desires.

Aspects of Irrational Faculty

• Vegetative: Most basic level, shared by all living things.

  • Concerns maintenance and continuation of life.

    • Nutrition.

    • Growth.

    • Reproduction.

  • Operates autonomously without conscious thought or deliberation.

• Appetitive: Responsible for desires, emotions, and urges.

  • Source of sensations of pleasure/pain.

  • Drives us towards things perceived as good and away from things perceived as bad.

    • Hunger.

    • Thirst.

    • Sexual urges.

    • Anger.

    • Fear.

    • Joy.

    • Sadness.

    • Instinct.

Origins of Virtue Ethics

• Approach to moral philosophy: character at the heart of moral inquiry.

• Rooted in ancient Greek philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle).

• Virtue (Greek): excellence of characteristics.

• The relationship between virtue and happiness is a central theme.

• Happiness is not a fleeting emotion but an integral component of a virtuous life.

• Eudaimonia: The highest human good and ultimate end.

• Not simply pleasure or external success, but a life lived well.

• Virtues are character traits that enable us to function optimally.

• Virtues are not innate but cultivated through habituation and practice.

Two Kinds of Virtues

• Intellectual virtues.

• Moral virtues.

Three Main Strands of Virtue Ethics

Eudaimonism

• Often rendered as "happiness," but can be misleading.

• Eudaimonia includes human flourishing.

• Living well and achieving full potential.

• Active state and ongoing process.

• Way of living that actualizes the highest human capabilities.

• Telos: Ultimate end.

• Identify your virtues; practically apply these virtues; build a virtuous life.

Steps to Achieve Eudaimonia

• Identify your virtues.

• Stems from understanding the ultimate end.

• Conquer fears, control emotions, and have justice and temperance.

  • Doctrine of the Mean: Cornerstone of virtue ethics.

    • Virtue lies in a balanced state between two extremes of vice.

      • Deficiency.

      • Excess.
        *Practical applications: Practical wisdom (ability to deliberate about what is good).
        *Manifest character formation through habitual exercise (courage, temperance, justice, generosity). These are not innate; they are acquired through consistent practice. Focus on disposition. Seek opportunities to practice virtue (truthfulness, patience, and justice).

Doctrine of the Mean

• Practical framework for identifying and cultivating moral virtues.

• Virtue lies in a balanced state between two extremes of vice.

  • Deficiency.

  • Excess.

• Golden Mean: Middle ground.
  *Virtues:
  *Courage: between cowardice and recklessness
  *Generosity: b/w stinginess and prodigality
  *Modesty: b/w shamelessness and bashfulness
  *Justice: b/w injustice & unfairness
  *Respect: b/w disregard & idolatry
  *Love: b/w selfishness & enablement
  *Diligence: b/w laziness & workaholism
  *Leadership: b/w lack of confidence & dictatorship

• Not an arithmetic average, but relative to the individual and circumstances.

• Practical wisdom helps determine the appropriate action/emotion.

Apply Practical Application of Virtue

• Manifest character formation through habitual exercise.

• Cultivation of dispositions.

• Virtues are not innate, but acquired through consistent practice.

• The intellectual grasp isn't enough; learned through repeated sharing, even when difficult.

• Exercise virtues repeatedly to ingrain virtuous habits.

• Intentionally seek opportunities to practice virtue.

  • Speaking truthfully even when inconveniencing.

  • Showing patience in frustrating situations.

  • Acting justly in resolving conflicts.

• Continuous self-improvement and balance.

Building Your Character

• Totality of moral and ethical qualities.

• Continuous process of shaping and refining oneself.

• Foundation of integrity, resiliency, and personal fulfillment.

• Influences decision-making and interactions with others.

• Intentional and continuous process.

• Requires self-awareness, consistent effort, and commitment to virtuous acts.

Example: Should Batman Kill the Joker?

• Utilitarianism: Yes, for the greatest good.

• Deontology: No, killing is wrong.

• Natural Law: No, against higher being.

• Virtue Ethics: What kind of person does Batman want to be?

  • Justice: Between injustice and unfairness.

  • Incorporate intellectual capacity and moral virtues for balance.

How to Acquire a Virtuous Character

• Practice diligently.

• Habituation.

• Moral virtues are not innate qualities but acquired through theoretical knowledge and diligence.

• Practice consistently by applying once applied, we will have habitual exercising for everything.

Ethics of Care

• Developed by Carol Gilligan, Nell Noddings, and Annette Baier.

• Focuses on relationships, interdependence, and responsiveness in moral life.

Centrality of Relationships

• Prioritizes relationships with other human beings.

• Identity, well-being, and moral obligations arise from embeddedness in relationships (family, friends, community).

• Morality begins with recognizing specific connections.

Responsiveness and Responsibility

• Being sensitive and responsive to the needs of those with whom one is in relationship.

• Emotions & Empathy: Recognition role emotions empathy, compassion, and sympathy.

Example: The Heinz Dilemma

• In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer.

• One drug that the doctors thought might save her.

• The family asks druggist to pay less, but he refuses.

• Husband, Heinz, broke into laboratory and stole a drug for his wife.

  • Question should Heinz have broken into a laboratory and drug for his wife.
    Moral Development
    Stages One Two Three Four Five Six etc.

• Heinz should steal drugs for his wife.Prioritization with relationships or to the point that we are prioritizing.
  *While this presents a lot of things, we need to show or care for this.

Ethics of care

*Caring involves: patience, ability to nature and self sacrifice.
*Offers a complement to other virtue ethics approaches.
*It allows ethical standards while connecting with human beings, regardless of what problems the ethics of care may pose.

Virtues of Care

• Classical virtue ethics emphasizes virtues like courage and justice.

• Ethics of care also values: attentiveness, responsiveness, competence, trust, compassion, and empathy.

Issues with Ethics of Care

• Potential for partiality.

• Capacity to resolve large-scale societal conflicts.

• Remains indispensable for ethical frameworks.

Agent-Based Theory

• Introduced by Michael Slote.

• Ethical value of motives/character traits is intrinsically good and non-derivatively.

• Intuitively recognize motivations (benevolence, kindness, compassion, justice) as admirable.

• Moral worth of an action is determined by its stemming from an admirable motive.

• Rightness of actions grounded in virtuous motives.

• Prioritizes character and motives behind an action.

Linda Zagzebski: Exemplarism

• Most fundamental moral experience is admiration.

• Instinctively admire moral qualities.

• Moral exemplars are the starting point of moral inquiry.

• These moral exemplars are qualities that define what is morally good.