Lecture Notes on Aristotle and Kantian Ethics

Aristotle: Life and Philosophy

• Time Period: 384-322 BCE
• Role: Virtue Ethicist (also known as Trait Ethicist/Aretaic Ethicist)
• Key Concept: Arete (personal excellence)
  • Understanding Virtue: Traits Aristotle refers to as virtues evaluate not just actions but the character behind them.

Central Questions in Virtue Ethics

• Key Query: What kind of person should I be?
  • Action is a secondary consideration, framed by desired character.
• Virtuous vs Vicious: Shift from Right vs Wrong to evaluating moral characters.

Arguments for Virtue Ethics

1. Rejects Alternative Life Approaches:
   • The Vulgar Life:
     • Pursuit of pleasure as the highest good; deemed unsuitable, similar to animal instincts.
   • The Political Life:
     • Emphasizes honoring and seeking approval; critiques include relativity and non-self-sufficiency of honors.
   • The Contemplative Life:
     • Aims for universal ideas of good but is critiqued for neglecting practical virtues and relationships.

The Function Argument

• Thesis: Understanding what a human should be and excel at requires defining our function.

1. Essence Discovery:
   • Identify:
     • Genus: What type of thing we are (Human = Animal).
     • Differentia: What sets us apart (Rationality).
2. Human Function: To excel as rational animals, emphasizing both rationality and social behaviors.
   • Importance of rational deliberation and social qualities

Types of Virtues/Excellence

1. Intellectual Virtues: Acquired through study.
2. Moral Virtues: Acquired through habit.
   • Example of habitual behavior: A generous person regularly performs generous actions.
   • Phronesis: Practical wisdom guiding appropriate actions in situations.

Doctrine of the Mean Argument

• Virtue Defined: A balance between two extremes (excess and deficiency).
  • Courage Example:
    • Excess = Foolhardiness, Deficiency = Cowardice; virtue is the proper amount of courage.
  • Applies to all traits and actions, advocating rationality in social virtues.

Application of Action-Guiding Virtues

1. Practical Wisdom (Phronesis) in Action:
   • Use moral exemplars for guidance in decision-making.
     • Example: “What would X do?”

Examples of Virtues in Practice

• Courage:
  • Appropriate action balances standing up for a friend without escalating conflict.
• Generosity:
  • Find a balance in giving that doesn’t harm oneself.
• Friendliness:
  • Avoid over-complimenting to prevent manipulation.
• Modesty:
  • Acknowledging social awareness while not overstepping.

Ethical Implementation Challenges

• Creating Workplace Policies: Advocating for virtues like Justice, Courage, and Friendliness to combat issues like harassment.
  • Concerns arise with employees' willingness to embrace virtues versus implementing strict policies.

Criticism of Virtue Ethics

1. Julia Annas' Viewpoint:

   • Vagueness of Duties: Subjectivity leads to challenges in enforcing ethics.
   • Emphasizes the need for consistency in ethical principles and addressing complexities in determining moral obligations.

2. Developmental Account:

   • Ethics as a skill developed through experience, avoiding the technical manual model of ethics.

Introduction to Kantian Deontology

• Key Themes:
  • Ethical ascription and moral intent are intrinsic to the act itself.
  • Rule-Deontology:
    • Determination of right versus wrong based on intent, not consequences.

Kant's Critical Arguments

1. Intent Matters: The same actions can differ morally based on the intent behind them.
2. Moral Law:
   • Categorical Imperative holds universally across all circumstances.
3. Evaluating Maxims:
   • Formulations of Universal Law (FUL) and Formulations of Humanity (FH) help assess moral actions.

Examples of Application in Kant's Ethics

• Evaluating situations like plagiarism or charitable actions based on respect for humanity and intent behind the actions.

Moral Luck by Thomas Nagel

1. Circumstances Impact on Ethics: Examining how different types of circumstances (constitutive, antecedent, occurrent, and consequential) affect moral outcomes.
   • Raises questions on the absoluteness of Kantian ethics concerning the importance of outcomes.

Ethical Dilemmas Around Euthanasia

1. Types of Euthanasia: Active vs Passive; Voluntary vs Involuntary.
2. James Rachels vs. Philippa Foot:
   • Explores the moral implications of ending life and the distinction between killing and letting die.
   • Presents arguments surrounding negative and positive duties in ethical decision-making.