Virtue Ethics
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Virtue Ethics
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Virtue Ethics
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Virtue Ethics
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Virtue Ethics
Questions
1. Define Virtue
2. List the four Cardinal Virtues added by Plato
3. OUTLINE Aretaic ethics (Aristotle’s view of virtue)
4. Explain the Golden Mean.
5. What is Intellectual Virtues?
6. ‘Phronesis’ explain the term.
7. OUTLINE the ethics of care by Annette Baier (Virtue ethics).
8. OUTLINE Alasdair MacIntyre’s view on Virtue ethics
9. Strengths of virtue ethics
10. Weakness of virtue ethics
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Answers
1. Virtue can be defined as moral excellence, which simply outlines a person who is always pure and has a lot of goodness
within.
2. The Cardinal Virtues:
 Temperance
 Prudence
 Courage
 Justice
3. See box:
Virtue ethics attempts to create a fresh approach to ethics which has only become popular recently but is an ancient theory
stemming back to Plato and Aristotle and aretaic ethics, which is derived from the word ‘arete’ meaning virtuous or excellence.
AGENT-CENTRED MORALITY
Unlike Situation ethics and Natural law which concentrate on moral actions, Virtue ethics concentrates on the person or the agent
performing the actions. It is not concerned with the motive or the consequence of an action but rather the person and therefore
resists a teleological/deontological classification.
EUDAIMONIA
Everyone aims for Aristotle’s Eudaimonia – the ancient Greek concept of a state of being concerned with contentment and
satisfaction in life. This is the highest good because we desire it for its own sake; it is intrinsically good, unlike the desire for Justice
which leads good living.
HAPPINESS
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Aristotle said there are three main forms of happiness:
1)
In living a life of enjoyment
2)
In being a free member of society
3)
In being a philosopher
Eudaimonia involves a combination of all three
TO ACHIEVE EUDAIMONIA
To achieve Eudaimonia one must develop and exercise virtuous qualities that are most productive for living in society. Extremes of
behaviour – a vice of deficiency or a vice of excess are unhelpful to society. A virtue is found in the golden mean.
For Aristotle, there are 12 moral virtues each of which fall between the vices of deficiency and excess:
VICE OF DIFFICIENCY
Cowardness
GOLDEN MEAN
VICE OF EXCESS
Courage
TWO TYPES OF VIRTUE:
Intellectual Virtue:
Developed by training/education
Moral Virtue:
Acquired by habit
Source: http://www.tutor2u.net/newsmanager/templates/?a=761&z=60
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Virtue Ethics
4. See box:
For every emotion, every desire or appetite, every behavioral disposition, there is a corresponding moral virtue, as well as moral
vices.
Virtues and vices are states of character.
According to Aristotle, emotions and desires have purposes with respect to the whole person, but they fulfill these purposes only if
they are felt at the right time, in the right way, to the right degree.
How you are conditioned to feel and respond to life situations is your character.
This “right amount” of an emotion or desire is said to be the mean between the extremes of excess and deficiency.
Thus, for every feeling you have, you can be virtuous (if your character is such that you feel it in the appropriate way), or you can
exhibit the vice of excess (too much of the feeling) or the vice of deficiency (too little).
For example, with respect to anger there is the vice of short-temperedness (excess), the vice of insensibility (deficiency) and the
virtue of even-temperedness.
There is also a golden mean with respect to the disposition to perform certain kinds of actions.
For example, the generous person has the virtue of being disposed to give away money in a fitting way (neither too much nor too
little).
Our rational soul, when it is operating effectively, can tell through experience what is fitting—but until our feeling and dispositions
are aligned with what reason dictates, we are not excellently rational.
Source: http://www.happinessonline.org/MoralCode/LiveWithTruth/p18.htm
5. Intellectual Virtues are personal traits which are required for correct behaviour and thoughts. These include:
 Wisdom
 Intelligence
 Prudence
 Scientific Knowledge
 Technical Skill
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6. Phronesis is a Greek term; it is usually translated to practical wisdom. According to Aristotle, “Balancing self-interest with that
of others. Needs to be directed by moral virtues”.
7. See box:
Finally, the Ethics of Care is another influential version of virtue ethics. Developed mainly by feminist writers, such as Annette Baier,
this account of virtue ethics is motivated by the thought that men think in masculine terms such as justice and autonomy, whereas
woman think in feminine terms such as caring. These theorists call for a change in how we view morality and the virtues, shifting
towards virtues exemplified by women, such as taking care of others, patience, the ability to nurture, self-sacrifice, etc. These virtues
have been marginalized because society has not adequately valued the contributions of women. Writings in this area do not always
explicitly make a connection with virtue ethics. There is much in their discussions, however, of specific virtues and their relation to
social practices and moral education, etc., which is central to virtue ethics.
Source: http://www.iep.utm.edu/v/virtue.htm#H3
8. See box:
Ethics in context :
Morality has lost its way. "Imagine a terrorist has taken your children, the Prime Minister and an atomic bomb. He threatens to use
the bomb unless..." These sorts of moral dilemmas force us to choose between keeping absolute rules that we want to live by (such
as 'do not kill') and preventing serious harm to many. We end up not knowing what to do, either abandoning our principles or
allowing terrible things to happen. Ethics has become a bizarre 'lose-lose' game that many of us have simply stopped playing.
MacIntyre urges us to remember where ethics came from. We need to understand the historical context of ethics. He wouldn't like
this website, because it's summarise everything without explaining where the theories came from and how they developed. Students
of ethics should immerse themselves in the past masters before looking at recent ethical theories - you need to appreciate the
'narrative context' (seeing the development of ethics as a story).
The context is also important for understanding issues. MacIntyre doesn't like 'quandry ethics' where theories are tested by looking
at implausible dilemmas. However, he does want ethics to do its job and tell us how we ought to live our lives. To better understand
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what sort of people we should be, and which decisions to make, we need to look at our own context.
Put another way, if we are talking about an ethical issue, such as the Nicaraguan 9-year old who became pregnant and had an
abortion, we have to find out about the context of the issue. In this particular case, the girl came from a Catholic country where
abortion is illegal in all circumstances. The doctors who carried out the abortion were condemned by the Church, and
excommunicated themselves (kicked themselves out of the church). Following this, tens of thousands of Nicaraguans
excommunicated themselves from the church.
Finding out about the context of an issue helps us understand the decisions people make.
Relative Values:
It follows from this that different societies have different values. For MacIntyre, virtues change over time. This can be seen by
looking at different societies, and MacIntyre explains the reasons why virtues change. The Homeric virtues included physical
strength, courage, cunning and friendship. In small tribal communities that could be attacked at any time, cunning, strength, even
ruthlessness may be virtuous. As villages developed into large cities, these virtues changed. The Athenian virtues included Justice
and Temperance, and physical strength was no longer so important. Whereas cunning used to be prized, more value would now be
put on Wisdom, the sort of understanding of human behaviour that could navigate through complex conflicts that might arise with so
many people living together.
Christianity adopted the cardinal virtues, but added faith, hope and love (charitable love) to these.
Internal and External Goods:
MacIntyre calls the virtues or qualities of character 'internal goods'. He says we also place value on 'external goods'. Aristotle would
have agreed here. The idea that we could be 'penniless but happy' did not come from Aristotle. He would have said that having good
food, a decent place to live and clothes to wear is all part of the eudaimon life. Put another way, Aristotle would ask if the house,
clothes and food would make a poor person happier. If they would, they must be part of eudaimonia, as eudaimonia is as good as it
gets. Physical well-being, food, clothing, housing etc. are called 'external goods'.
MacIntyre also talks of 'practices'. He says that certain activities, such as painting, the opera etc., are good in and of themselves and
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not merely because of the pleasure (i.e. other goods) that they lead to.
To summarise MacIntyre in one sentence (which is exactly the sort of thing he hates), he says that we value different qualities of
character, practices and physical things, and that by understanding historical and social context, we can understand ethical issues
that arise.
Source: http://www.rsrevision.com/Alevel/ethics/virtue_ethics/
9. Strengths:
 It includes the importance of motivation towards people and the need to be good in terms of behaviour and thought.
 Teaches people how to pick up moral principles and allows the individual to develop a virtue.
 Enables integration on several aspects of life such as responsibilities, emotions and commitments.
 Shows people that legalists don’t necessarily mean they are good people, just because they obey rules and laws.
10. Weakness’:
 Identification of virtues
 Virtue ethics praises certain virtues which some people may find immoral.
 It is dependant on a final outcome which may give shape to our personal lives. How can one know if being virtuous
may affect the final outcome?
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