Virtue Ethics

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Virtue Ethics
Another amusing and easy topic for A2 ethics
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Virtue Ethics begins with Aristotle, who was a
student of Plato and, ultimately, rejected
Platos teachings. This disagreement gave rise to
a fundamental dispute in moral philosophy what
is good? Plato gave a metaphysical account of
goodness. He regarded the good as something real
the ultimate reality which is the source of our
being. Thus, our job is to contemplate the good.
That is the ultimate aim of philosophy. Aristotle,
meanwhile, criticised what Plato had said about
goodness. He instead gave a naturalistic and
psychological account of good it is a part of
our natural dispositions as human beings. This
led Aristotle to the idea of purpose. Ethical
life means living in tune with our natural
purpose of rational and virtuous behaviour. This
makes Aristotles virtue ethics a teleological
system.
Nice beard Plato, but you havent understood the
nature of goodness. It is natural, not
metaphysical.
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• Aristotles Ethics
• Discussed in his book Nicomachean Ethics
• Instead of offering normative ethics (i.e.
  claims about what is right or wrong), Aristotle
  put forward a system which is aretaic (arête is
  Greek for excellence), focused on the character
  of the individual. In other words, aretaic virtue
  ethics focuses upon the desire to be a person of
  a certain quality.
• Aristotle thought that the purpose in our life
  is to become happy by practising the skill of
  virtuous behaviour. This ultimate aim (telos
  Greek) is called eudaimonia (well-spirited so
  roughly, flourishing), referring to the idea
  that the person practising virtue feels fulfilled
  and content.

Pleasure is also thought to be most important
for the forming of a virtuous character to like
and dislike the right things.
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Qualities of Happiness and the Human
Valuing pleasure, however, can be unclear what
is happiness? Aristotle distinguished between
three types of happy people

• Pleasure seekers are driven by basic desires
  (food, sex)
• Honour seekers are driven by their reputations
  (politicians)
• Lovers of contemplation are philosophers and
  thinkers

Pleasure seekers follow the lowest form whereas
contemplation lovers achieve what is best. The
servile masses prefer pleasure, but not
philosophers. Humans have the distinctive power
of reasoning, which makes them the rational
animals and so they should strive for what is
better. The human soul itself is divided into the
rational and irrational parts. The key aspect of
the rational human soul is its division into the
scientific and calculative, which holds a priori
knowledge and makes decisions. Virtue Ethics
involves a person making full and harmonious use
of the soul.
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The Virtues For Aristotle, the good life meant
following the doctrine of the mean, the middle
path between extremes. Being virtuous means being
neither deficient nor excessive, but properly
balanced. For instance, it is virtuous to have
courage by avoiding a deficiency of courage
(cowardice) and avoiding excessive courage
(rashness). One learns to pick up the right
balance of behaviour through practice and
habit. Aristotle distinguished between
intellectual and moral virtues, setting out what
he saw as 12 key moral virtues with their
corresponding deficiencies and excesses.
Examples Modesty is a virtue. Those deficient in
modesty are shameless, but those excessive in
modesty are bashful. Wittiness is a virtue. Those
deficient in wit are boorish, but those excessive
in wit are guilty of buffoonery.
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WARNING Deficiency of Virtue in our useless
modern world! After years of Virtue Ethics being
unfashionable, in 1958 the philosopher Elizabeth
Anscombe wrote in Modern Moral Philosophy that
all of our modern morality is misguided just
plain wrong. We have mistakenly supposed that
goodness is a property of actions rather than
of people. To resolve this mess, Anscombe
proposed that we turn back to Aristotle and
rediscover the idea of personal virtue.
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The Mac Attack Virtue is Back

• Having been inspired by ethicists like Anscombe,
  the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre wrote a hugely
  influential book After Virtue. Essentially, he
  considers the history of Virtue Ethics and
  attempts to produce a version of the system which
  can work in the modern age.
• MacIntyre observes that ancient societies
  developed a series of virtues agreed by their
  inhabitants. The high point of this, claims
  MacIntyre, was the Athenian Virtues of Aristotle.
• However, since the Enlightenment, rational
  philosophers have sought to give a single account
  of the cause of ethics, ignoring the most
  important aspect individual practice.
• MacIntyre argues that having a set of agreed
  virtues for our society could help to give life
  purpose and meaning. He suggests courage,
  justice, temperance, wisdom, industriousness,
  hope, and patience.
• MacIntyre claimed that if we all willed to put
  such virtues into practice in our lives, it could
  give morality a fresh start.

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The Virtues of Virtue Ethics
Virtue Ethics allows that we learn about ethics
over time. Surely thats realistic. Virtue Ethics
is flexible, because it does not prescribe
absolute duties. The theory allows that ideas of
virtue will vary among cultures. Martha Nussbaum
has argued that Virtue Ethics is compassionate
and caring because it takes the whole person
into account. It is interested in the wellbeing
and fulfilment of the individual.
Key strengths
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The Vices of Virtue Ethics
The theory does not give clear moral rules and
guidance, unlike Kantian ethics or Natural Moral
Law. Robert Louden has claimed that Virtue Ethics
cannot resolve moral dilemmas, because it does
not tell us what to do. Hugo Grotius argued that
truth and justice are not middle ways, but
ethical absolutes. Virtue Ethics does not deal
with the problem of people doing wrong, thinking
that they are acting virtuously. Some things are
always wrong (Louis Pojman suggests torturing the
innocent). We need moral systems which absolutely
forbid these things, but Virtue Ethics doesnt.
Doh!
Key weaknesses