Virtue Ethics Flashcards

Virtue Ethics

• Based on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.
• Focuses on the moral agent's character rather than specific actions.
• Asks: "How should I live?"
• Answer: Cultivate virtues to live a virtuous life and flourish.

Eudaimonia / Flourishing

• Aristotle: everyone seeks a "happy" life (eudaimonia).
• Eudaimonia: not just happiness or pleasure.
• It applies to one's whole life, demonstrating persistence over time, similarly to character.
• Achieved by cultivating virtues.

The Virtues

• Virtues enable human flourishing.
• Virtue: a pattern of behavior, habit, feeling; acting/desiring appropriately.
• Experiencing appropriate emotions is crucial for a virtuous life.
• Virtue lies in the "mean" between two extremes (lack and excess).
• Example: Courage is the mean between cowardice and recklessness.
• Virtues are cultivated through repeated actions, becoming habits/