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.