Virtue Ethics
The Heart of Virtue Ethics
“Virtue” can actually be understood from two different perspectives.
In this view, prescriptive principles are more basic, and virtue becomes just this derived concept about keeping principles
personal character—virtue—is primary.
Primacy of character - Virtue theory maintains that our essential moral responsibility is to develop a virtuous personal character, a character full of virtues.
Character motivation - Virtue theory attributes a person’s motivation for acting morally directly to his character, not to any duty or principle.
Several right choices - Virtue theory can allow for different choices to count as equally right in the same situation because different virtuous people might choose differently.
Key Terms
Virtues: specific character traits, like honesty and courage, that are morally good values; a virtuous person has many virtues.
Vices: specific character traits, like dishonesty and selfishness, that are the opposite of virtues and thus morally bad. A vicious person has many vices
Aristoteles Virtue Ethics
human beings seek happiness—eudaimonia
Aristotle concludes that our unique function is our ability to order and direct our lives by reason—to live in accordance with reason.
Those who do it best achieve the highest degree of human excellence or virtue.
Virtuous persons are those most skilled at ordering all facets of life in accordance with reason.
Intellectual virtue - developed through teaching.
Moral virtue - requires practice
In fact, one must fulfill several conditions to count as having attained excellence:
One must know what the right thing is
One must intend to do the right thing because it is the right thing.
One’s right actions must be the products of one’s own “firm and unchangeable character”
one’s behavioral patterns must be habitual or second nature.
No one becomes virtuous except by years of practice; there’s no short cut. — no one is born virtuous
Aristotle’s famous doctrine is that each virtue lies at the golden mean between some excess and deficiency
virtue achieves balance, while the extremes represent vices:
deficiency<--------------------- mean ---------------------> excess cowardliness — courage recklessness
Aristotle’s theory has a few practical implications. First, Aristotle warns us that simply thinking and talking about virtue won’t make anyone virtuous.
a society that may place too much emphasis on rules and rights and not enough on individual character and responsibility
responsibility never falls entirely upon each person alone. The social environment also exerts a powerful influence upon the development of individual virtue and vice.
Key Terms
Eudaimonia - Aristotle’s concept of human flourishing (happiness) that is achieved only as we fulfill our human function of living by reason.
Mean - a virtuous act or feeling that achieves the proper balance (“golden mean”) between both excess and deficiency
Critiquing Principle-Based Ethics
Principle-based ethics are incomplete.
Principle-based ethics overemphasize impartiality.
principle-based ethics ask us to “detach” ourselves from our feelings and to evaluate what is right without partiality.
Principle-based ethics distort our picture of human nature
Principle-based ethics don’t motivate
Key Terms
Moral saint - drawn from Wolf’s essay, a moral saint is one who perfectly fulfills the requirements of a given moral theory.
Impartiality - the objective moral perspective prized by most principle-based theories; it requires us to detach ourselves from our personal feelings and bypass our personal interests
Classifying the Virtues
The virtuous person has fully integrated all the virtues into an undivided and mature character and lives by that character.
the appearance of any particular virtue simply manifests part of their overall virtue.
other virtues must always come into play when any one virtue is exercised
Key Terms
Obligation virtues - serve to fulfill our moral duties to act in certain ways (e.g., promise keeping, justice, truthfulness)
Good-promoting virtues - serve to promote specific values or goods (e.g., sociability, generosity).
Limiting virtues - serve to control or manage our inclinations and feelings (e.g., courage, temperance [self-control], loyalty, or faithfulness)
Problems With Virtue Ethics
Attaining virtue - Principle-based ethics asks us to do what is morally right.
Two particularly interesting challenges to virtue theory’s practicability
Aristotle’s assumption that we all begin life with a more or less neutral moral character.
A second challenge comes from Michael Slote. His argument begins with the observation that the entire ancient world—including Aristotle—accepted slavery as “natural and inevitable.”
Explanatory power: The virtues are foundational moral values. But what makes them good?
Incompleteness: A common complaint against virtue theory is that it doesn’t tell us enough about what we should do.
Virtue theory also seems ill-equipped to address certain moral problems:
Virtue ethics emphasizes the development of personal character and virtues as central to moral behavior, in contrast to principle-based ethics. It prioritizes developing a virtuous character over strict adherence to rules, with motivations for actions stemming from one's character rather than duties. Aristotle’s contributions highlight the pursuit of eudaimonia (flourishing) through reason, requiring practice to cultivate moral virtues that exist as a mean between excess and deficiency. Additionally, virtue ethics critiques the limitations of principle-based ethics, noting their incompleteness and failure to engage personal feelings, while addressing challenges such as assumptions about moral neutrality and the implications of societal norms on individual character development.