Virtue Theory of Ethics
Virtue ethics is a philosophy developed by Aristotle and other ancient Greeks. It is
the quest to understand and live a life of moral character.
Virtue ethics is person rather than action based: it
looks at the virtue or moral character of the person carrying
out an action, rather than at ethical duties and rules, or the consequences of
particular actions.
The Virtue Ethical Theories hold
that ethical value of an individual is determined by his character.
The character refers to the virtues, inclinations and intentions that dispose
of a person to be ready to act ethically.
Virtue Theory,
which says that we ought to focus not on what rules to follow, but on whatkinds of people (or organizations!) we want to be, and what kinds of ethical
examples we ought to follow;
A virtue is a habit or quality that
allows individuals to succeed at their purpose. Therefore, Virtue
Ethics is only intelligible if it is teleological (i.e. it
includes an account of the purpose or meaning of human life), a
matter of some contention among philosophers since the
beginning of time.
Aristotle, with whom Virtue Ethics is largely
identified, categorized the virtues as moral virtues (including
prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance) and intellectual virtues (including
"sophia" or theoretical wisdom, and "phronesis" or
practical wisdom). Aristotle further argued that each of the
moral virtues was a golden mean, or desirable middle ground,
between two undesirable extremes (e.g. the virtue of courage
is a mean between the two vices of cowardice and foolhardiness).
The traditional list of cardinal
virtues was:
·
Prudence
·
Justice
·
Fortitude / Bravery
·
Temperance
The modern theologian James F Keenan
suggests the following virtues essential for successful life:
·
Justice
·
Justice requires us to treat all
human beings equally and impartially.
·
Fidelity
·
Fidelity requires that we treat
people closer to us with special care.
·
Self-care
·
We each have a unique responsibility
to care for ourselves, affectively, mentally, physically, and spiritually.
·
Prudence
·
The prudent person must always
consider Justice, Fidelity and Self-care.
·
The prudent person must always look
for opportunities to acquire more of the other three virtues
Virtue Ethics (or Virtue Theory) is
an approach to Ethics that emphasizes an
individual's character as the key element of ethical thinking,
rather than rules about the acts themselves (Deontology) or their consequences (Consequentialism).
There are three main strands of
Virtue Ethics: Eudaimonism, Ethics of Care and agent-based ethics.
Eudaimonism is the classical
formulation of Virtue Ethics. It holds that the proper goal of
human life is eudaimonia (which can be variously translated
as "happiness", "well-being" or
the "good life"), and that this goal can be achieved by a
lifetime of practicing "arÃte" (the virtues)
in one's everyday activities, subject to the exercise of "phronesis" (practical
wisdom) to resolve any conflicts or dilemmas which
might arise. Indeed, such a virtuous life would in itself constitute eudaimonia,
which should be seen as an objective, not a subjective, state,
characterized by the well-lived life, irrespective of the emotional
state of the person experiencing it.
Ethics of
Care was developed mainly
by Feminist writers (e.g. Annette Baier) in
the second half of the 20th Century, and was motivated by the idea that men
think in masculine terms such as justice and autonomy,
whereas woman think in feminine terms such as caring.
It calls 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, which have
been marginalized because society has not adequately valued the
contributions of women. It emphasizes the importance of solidarity, community and relationships rather
than universal standards and impartiality. It argues that instead of doing the
right thing even if it requires personal cost or sacrificing
the interest of family or community members
(as the traditional Consequentialist and deontological approaches suggest), we can, and indeed
should, put the interests of those who are close to us above the
interests of complete strangers.
Agent-Based
Theories, as developed recently
by Michael Slote (1941 - ), give an account of virtue based on
our common-sense intuitions about which character traits
are admirable (e.g. benevolence, kindness, compassion, etc),
which we can identify by looking at the people we admire, our moral
exemplars. The evaluation of actions is therefore dependent on
ethical judgments about the inner life of the agents who
perform those actions.
Virtue
Theory by Aristotle
Ethical
system based on defining the personal qualities that make a person moral. Everyone
has a purpose, a telos; Pursuing Eudemonia is of intrinsic value, for you and
society , that is equal to integration. Eudemonia
refers to the good life. Moral living means developing characteristics best
suited to produce a virtuous human being.
The
moral theory of Aristotle, like that of Plato, focuses on virtue, recommending
the virtuous way of life by its relation to happiness. His most important
ethical work, Nicomachean Ethics, devotes the first book to a
preliminary account of happiness, which is then completed in the last chapters
of the final book, Book X. This account ties happiness to excellent activity of
the soul. In subsequent books, excellent activity of the soul is tied to the
moral virtues and to the virtue of “practical wisdom” — excellence in thinking
and deciding about how to behave. This approach to moral theory depends on a
moral psychology that shares a number of affinities with Plato's. However,
while for Plato the theory of forms has a role in justifying virtue, Aristotle
notoriously rejects that theory. Aristotle grounds his account of virtue in his
theory about the soul — a topic to which he devotes a separate treatise, de
Anima.
Main Points of
Aristotle's Ethical Philosophy
- The
highest good and the end toward which all human activity is directed is
happiness, which can be defined as continuous contemplation of eternal and
universal truth.
- One
attains happiness by a virtuous life and the development of reason and the
faculty of theoretical wisdom. For this one requires sufficient external
goods to ensure health, leisure, and the opportunity for virtuous action.
- Moral
virtue is a relative mean between extremes of excess and deficiency, and
in general the moral life is one of moderation in all things except
virtue. No human appetite or desire is bad if it is controlled by reason
according to a moral principle. Moral virtue is acquired by a combination
of knowledge, habituation, and self-discipline.
- Virtuous
acts require conscious choice and moral purpose or motivation. Man has
personal moral responsibility for his actions.
- Moral
virtue cannot be achieved abstractly — it requires moral action in a
social environment. Ethics and politics are closely related, for politics
is the science of creating a society in which men can live the good life
and develop their full potential.
Subjects Covered
in The Nicomachean Ethics
•
Book I, Chap. 1-3: Nature of Ethics and
methods of studying Ethics.
•
Book I, Chap. 4-12: Discussion of
Happiness and the good as the ends of human life.
•
Book II, Chap. 1-4: Discussion of Moral
Virtue.
•
Book II, Chap. 5-9: The Doctrine of the
Mean.
•
Book III, Chap. 1-5: Moral purpose and
moral responsibility.
•
Book III, Chap. 6-12, and Book IV:
Discussion of particular moral virtues.
•
Book V: Discussion of Justice.
•
Book VI: The Intellectual Virtues.
•
Book VII: Continence and Incontinence.
•
Books VIII and IX: Friendship.
•
Book X, Chap. 1-5: Further discussion of
Pleasure.
•
Book X, Chap. 6-8: Happiness, the end of
human life.
•
Book X, Chap. 9: Relationship of Ethics
and Politics.
The Virtue
Ethics & The Golden Mean
We always desire happiness for
its own stake. The function of man is activity of the soul in accordance with
reason. Moral virtues can best be acquired through practice and habit. Virtue
is a mean lying between two vices
Moral behavior is the mean between two
extremes - at one end is excess, at the other deficiency. Find a moderate
position between those two extremes, and you will be acting morally. Aristotle
called it the Golden Mean.
Good
judgment requires that one find the mean between extremes. In order to do that,
one must have both general knowledge and particular experience. Practical
wisdom is the intellectual virtue (intellectual virtues are higher than moral
virtues), which governs deliberation and action.
Eg..; Cowardice(too little confidence) is the deficiency of Courage and Rashness (too much confidence) is the excessive show of it. The middle path courage is thevirtue to follow.
The
mean is the moderation of two extreme values which are vices
– Person
is controlling his instincts and impulses to the point which is consistent with
the moral law of reason
– Decided
by prudence
Comparison
of Virtue Theory & Other Ethics Theories
The virtue of courage is the Golden Mean
between rashness and cowardice. The point of Mean will not, however, be the
same for everyone
Virtue
Ethics emphasizes character or virtues rather than rules or consequences, as
the key element of ethical thinking. In the West, virtue ethics was the
prevailing approach to ethical thinking in the ancient and medieval periods. The
tradition suffered an eclipse during the early modern period, as
Aristotelianism fell out of favour in the west. Virtue ethics returned to
prominence in Western philosophical thought in the twentieth century.
Virtue
theory is one of three major approaches
in normative ethics. It may, initially, be identified as the one that
emphasizes the virtues, or moral character, in contrast to the approach that
emphasizes duties or rules (deontology) or that emphasizes the consequences of
actions (consequentialism).
– Suppose
it is obvious that someone in need should be helped.
– A
utilitarian will point to the fact that the consequences of doing so will
maximize well-being,
– A
deontologist to the fact that, in doing so the agent will be acting in
accordance with a moral rule such as “Do unto others as you would be done by”
and
– A
virtue ethicist to the fact that helping the person would be charitable or
benevolent.
This is not to say that
only virtue ethicists attend to virtues, any more than it is to say that only
consequentialists attend to consequences or only deontologists to rules.
Each of the
above-mentioned approaches can make room for virtues, consequences, and rules.
Indeed, any plausible
normative ethical theory will have something to say about all three.
What distinguishes
virtue ethics from consequentialism or deontology is the centrality of
virtue within the theory (Watson 1990; Kawall 2009).
Whereas consequentialists
will define virtues as traits that yield good consequences and deontologists
will define them as traits possessed by those who reliably fulfil their duties,
virtue ethicists will resist the attempt to define virtues in terms of some
other concept that is taken to be more fundamental. Rather, virtues and
vices will be foundational for virtue ethical theories and other normative
notions will be grounded in them.
Virtue
ethics is propounded by life and works of Mahatma Gandhi(Ahimsa), Mother
Teresa(helping poor), Malala(girl’s right for education), Nelson Mandela(fight
against racism) and Martin Luther King (fight against slavery & led US to
Freedom)
Moral
Absolutism
Advocates
of this theorem claims that there are absolute standards against which morality
can be judged. We can strive to attain higher norms that apply to all human
beings. Certain actions are right or wrong irrespective of the context of the
act. Nothing is relative; a crime is a crime regardless of the circumstances. Therefore
right and wrong are universal truths ( ethical standards are applicable to
every body everywhere.
Analysis:
•
From an egoistic view, moral absolutism
condones fundamentalism. This can break down society.
•
This would imply that all people should
have the same ethical codes.
•
Positively: it allows us to judge the
actions of others.
Moral
Relativism
– There
are no universal moral standards; Nothing is good or bad absolutely.
– Therefore
the truth/ moral principles vary from time to time, group to group place to
place
•
Every one should be contented with the
morality of their time and place
•
Two Forms of Relativism
– Subjectivism:
Each individual must act according to what he/she considers appropriate for
each situation
– Cultural
Relativism: Good and Bad depends on the ethical values
prevailing in the given culture/community.
Analysis
– No
responsibility, No blame everybody/groups have their own moral standards.
– Can
not Judge others
– Laws
become impossible to implement
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