Virtue Ethics

Virtue ethics
Character-based ethics
 A right act is the action a virtuous person would do in the same

circumstances.
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. Virtue ethics not only deals with the rightness or
wrongness of individual actions, it provides guidance as to the sort of characteristics and
behaviors a good person will seek to achieve.In that way, virtue ethics is concerned with the
whole of a person's life, rather than particular episodes or actions.
A good person is someone who lives virtuously - who possesses and lives the virtues.
It's a useful theory since human beings are often more interested in assessing the character
of another person than they are in assessing the goodness or badness of a particular action.
This suggests that the way to build a good society is to help its members to be good people,
rather than to use laws and punishments to prevent or deter bad actions.
But it wouldn't be helpful if a person had to be a saint to count as virtuous. For virtue
theory to be really useful it needs to suggest only a minimum set of characteristics that a
person needs to possess in order to be regarded as virtuous.
Principles
Virtue ethics teaches:
 An action is only right if it is an action that a virtuous person would carry out
in the same circumstances.
 A virtuous person is a person who acts virtuously
 A person acts virtuously if they "possess and live the virtues"
 A virtue is a moral characteristic that a person needs to live well.

 Most virtue theorists would also insist that the virtuous person is one who
acts in a virtuous way as the result of rational thought (rather than, say,
instinct).
The three questions
The modern philosopher Alasdair Macintyre proposed three questions as being at the
heart of moral thinking:
 Who am I?
 Who ought I to become?
 How ought I to get there?

Lists of the virtues
 Most virtue theorists say that there is a common set of virtues that all human beings
would benefit from, rather than different sets for different sorts of people, and that
these virtues are natural to mature human beings - even if they are hard to
acquire.This poses a problem, since lists of virtues from different times in history and
different societies show significant differences.
The traditional list of cardinal virtues was:
1. Prudence
2. Justice
3. Fortitude / Bravery
4. Temperance
The modern theologian James F Keenan suggests:
 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
Good points of virtue ethics
 It centres ethics on the person and what it means to be human
 It includes the whole of a person's life

Bad points of virtue ethics
 It doesn't provide clear guidance on what to do in moral dilemmas although it does

provide general guidance on how to be a good person presumably a totally virtuous person would
know what to do and we could consider them a suitable role model to guide us . There is no
general agreement on what the virtues are and it may be that any list of virtues will be relative
to the culture in which it is being drawn up.
Is Virtue a Habit?
According to Aristotle, virtue is a habit:
“Ethics is not merely a theoretical study for Aristotle. Unlike any intellectual capacity, virtues of
character are dispositions to act in certain ways in response to similar situations, the habits of behaving
in a certain way. Thus, good conduct arises from habits that in turn can only be acquired by repeated
action and correction, making ethics an intensely practical discipline.”
Aristotle believed that virtue as a habit requires an intentional choice when you begin. The habit
of virtue is not yet developed, but over time one becomes used to behaving virtuously and after
a while one acts virtuously without needing to use volition. You have become virtuous—it’s now
part of you and how you act.
Aristotle’s theory leaves a lot of questions unanswered (some of those questions he addresses
in other places). It doesn’t tell you which acts are virtuous or why, for example. As a guide to
practical action, however, conceiving of virtue as a habit is useful.
Life can be complicated, and the more parts of it that you handle without needing to think
about them, then the easier it gets. Much of my life is governed by habits, and that’s often the
part of life that works the best. I get up when the alarm rings; brush my teeth; turn on the
coffee; bring in the paper; and let the dog out.

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Virtue ethics

 A right act is the action a virtuous person would do in the same

Virtue ethics teaches:

 A virtuous person is a person who acts virtuously

 A person acts virtuously if they "possess and live the virtues"

 A virtue is a moral characteristic that a person needs to live well.

The three questions

 How ought I to get there?

The traditional list of cardinal virtues was:

Good points of virtue ethics

 It centres ethics on the person and what it means to be human

 It includes the whole of a person's life

 It doesn't provide clear guidance on what to do in moral dilemmas although it does

According to Aristotle, virtue is a habit:

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