...OBrien Ethics Virtue Theory Virtue ethics is one theory that people use to make moral decisions. It does not rely on culture, society, or religion; it only depends on the individuals. Aristotle was the main philosopher of virtue theory which he introduced his theory in ancient Greek times. Aristotle was a great believer in virtues and the meaning of virtue to him meant being able to fulfill one's functions. Virtue ethics is not interested in the question “what should I do?” but rather in the question “what kind of person should I become?” It has more to do with the nature of what it is to be human and their character, than with the rights and wrongs of actions. Instead of concentrating on what is the right thing to do, virtue ethics asks how you can be a better person. Aristotle says that those who do lead a virtuous life are very happy and have sense of well-being. Happiness is the ultimate goal for everyone in life. Aristotle's definition of happiness is, “happiness is the activity of the soul in accord with perfect virtue”. To become a better person, we must practice virtuous acts regularly. After a while, these acts will become a habit and so the virtuous acts part of our everyday life and the person will be leading a virtuous life. For example, if a singer practices singing every day, they will become better at it and used to doing it. Practicing virtue theory is similar, but it is more of an exercise for the the mind. People who practice their virtues improve their skills...
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...Ethics, we are introduced to the term “virtue”. Contrary to our definition of virtue, Aristotle’s version of virtue does not only include moral excellence but excellence in all aspects of life. He says that “true politician” will try harder to be virtuous than anything else. The reason for this is because a politician wants their citizens to be upstanding and obey the laws put in place. Virtue is an important concept to Aristotle because human’s ultimate goal is happiness. He says to achieve happiness, we must study “human virtue”. He makes the distinction between a virtue of the soul and a virtue of the body. Happiness is a virtue of the soul so politicians must be knowledgeable of the human soul to a...
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...Virtue Ethics Virtue ethics is a theory used to make moral decisions. It does not rely on religion, society or culture; it only depends on the individuals themselves. The main philosopher of Virtue Ethics is Aristotle. His theory was originally introduced in ancient Greek times. Aristotle was a great believer in virtues and the meaning of virtue to him meant being able to fulfil one's functions. Virtue ethics is not so much interested in the question 'What should I do?' but rather in the question 'what sort of person should I become?' It has more to do with character and the nature of what it is to be human, than with the rights and wrongs of actions. Instead of concentrating on what is the right thing to do, virtue ethics asks how you can be a better person. Aristotle says that those who do lead a virtuous life are very happy and have sense of well-being. Happiness is the ultimate goal for everyone in life. Aristotle's definition of happiness is, 'happiness is the activity of the soul in accord with perfect virtue'. To become a better person, we must practice virtuous acts regularly. After a while, these acts will become a habit and so the virtuous acts part of our every day life and the person will be leading a virtuous life. For example, if a singer practices singing everyday, they will become better at it and used to doing it. People who practice their virtues improve their skills and therefore becoming...
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...theme of how a virtuous person would live their life. In contrast, David Hume developed his own account of sentimentalist virtue ethics that challenges, or pushes back on, the virtue ethics Aristotle. According to Aristotle, we should be virtuous people – and as virtuous people do virtuous things. Instead of talking about particular actions and the rules according to which they are undertaken, then, Aristotle requires us to look at virtues, or qualities of character. Within Aristotle, the emphasis is more on character traits than on rules or obligations. Moral agency is not merely a matter of which rules to follow, but a whole way of life, which requires a unity of thought and feeling, which is characteristic of what Aristotle called ‘virtue’. What is a virtue, and what is the virtuous life? Aristotle’s definition is cited by Boetzkes and Waluchow: virtue is “a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e., the mean relative to us, this being determined by rational principle, that principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.” Virtue is a kind of disposition, but that’s not all – for virtue is a disposition to choose well. For Aristotle, virtuous action is action that emerges from one’s disposition to choose the middle point (or golden mean) between two vicious extremes; one extreme is the vice of excess, the other is a vice of deficiency. For Aristotle, there are four requirements associated with this idea of ‘choosing well’: (a) choice presupposes...
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...virtuous character, as many perceive faith to be a virtue. However, by Aristotle’s definition of virtue as it is presented in Nicomachean Ethics, faith itself would not be a virtue but in fact an excess condition of trust and loyalty. It because of Abraham’s lack of total faith in God – which is itself would be considered a vice for two reasons: because it is an excess condition and because it doesn’t account for self-interest...
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...that moral sense and reason make in moral judgments that we make every day. He argues that moral sense is the tool that enables us to make the distinction between vice and virtue but both moral sense and reason contribute to the formation of our moral judgments. Reason becomes very useful when a judgment needs to be made weather something is useful or not. Basically reason enables us to determine how and why something is useful to us or others. Further in the section Hume talks about what moral judges tend to include in their lists of virtues, what is left out and how those lists are being created. Towards the end of the section he goes back to the classification of virtues he proposed in the Treatise of Human Nature. p. 169, 133 – All humans are obviously very different and same concept applies to our morality. Hume explains it by the example of a stubborn person who likes to argue just to “show off”. He concludes that the only way for such person to realize that he/she is an antagonist of the group is by leaving him/her alone. Through observation or experience the given individual will realize that in general more people are on the common sense and reason side. p. 170, 134 – Here Hume starts to discuss the “foundation of morals”. He refers to ancient philosophers and points out that their belief in virtue being a conformity to reason creates a confusion because in general they believed that morals had their origins in taste and sentiment. Two kind of contradict each...
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...As shown in the Aristotle’s book Nicomachean Ethics describes, moral virtue is “a mean of two vices, the one involving excess, and the other deficiency”. To be precise, some examples are discussed below. For example, courage is a mean of fearness and rashness. Justice is a mean of an extreme distribution and too equal distribution. Goodness is a mean of helping all the people and don’t help anyone. In general, to pursue moral virtue is like pursue an intermediate state which is a “golden mean” of the two vices. Then we can talk about why it seems like a sort of “training regimen” for happiness. If we recall the definition of happiness in Nicomachean Ethics, “happiness turns out to be an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue”. It actually provides a link between happiness and virtue. To be precise at this point, happiness is not pleasure or virtue, but the exercise of virtue. Moreover, happiness depends on the acquiring of moral virtue, which, as described above, a process of achieving the golden mean of the excess and deficiency, the balance between the two vices. Therefore, if we want to acquire happiness, we need to practice ourselves in balancing things and inclining sometimes excess and sometimes deficiency. As Aristotle mentioned in Nicomachean Ethics, “this is no doubt difficult”. It is just like “training regimen” for happiness, if we imagine a virtuous character as a healthy body. As the goal of doctor is to produce a balance of one’s body by appropriate training...
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...Ethics 1) Book II chapters 8 and 9: Argument about The Moral Virtue is a mean: this is serious ethical discussion about the real people: because it consists in acting fair and virtuous throughout the diverse situations of life of the human being, Practicing finding the mean is the dominion of reason over human impulses that will attain for unethical things. This is the Moral virtue and being fulfilled in it leads us to the search of the final Good. The mean is one of the three kinds of disposition in which “two of them are vices” and this is a term used to designate the center in which virtue is located, which is the fundamental equilibrium between vices involving excess and deficiency” (pg34 pa11) . One example that Aristotle gives is about courage, this is the mean between the deficiency vice of cowardice and the excess vice of recklessness. With the mean we refer to try to find a center that takes into account just circumstances and decisions according to the actions we take, in this way Aristotle argues that getting angry is easy getting angry with the right person, in the right form, during the adequate time is difficult but this from is adequate, right and fair and it is where virtue lies. Without a doubt it is necessary to evaluate carefully the situations and circumstances we face. And also Aristotle indicated that Justice is impartial and remains impartial in any situation for example you need to see the limits of this impartiality as...
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...Unlike utilitarianism, which focuses on the consequences of an action, and deontological ethics, which focuses on moral rules; virtue ethics focuses on doing something simply because it’s the right thing to do based on established virtues. Aristotle (Irbe, 2000) listed several virtues and vices that correspond to different “actions” or “feelings”. Each virtue has two corresponding vices that accompany it, one of the vices occurs when there is an excess of the virtue, and the other occurs when the virtue is deficient. The feeling associated with modesty is shame. If there is too much shame, it would be shyness; however not enough shame would be shamelessness. Virtue ethics focuses on choices that an individual should make based on morals that hold true regardless of the laws and customs of a person’s specific culture. Essentially everyone should be held accountable to the same virtues even if local laws and customs allow the behavior. One should apply virtue ethics to both their personal lives as well as their professional lives. In the 1990’s major concerns were exposed in the manufacturing community about working conditions in factories located in third-world countries (Sethi, Veral, Shapiro, & Emelianova, 2010). Major pressure was then placed on numerous manufacturing companies in an attempt to force them to change their practices and improve working conditions in their factories. While it is the goal of every company to continually increase profits, a company should...
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...Virtù in The Prince In The Prince, Machiavelli’s concept of virtue is different from the modern connotations of the word, which is indicative of moral excellence. In the text the word in the original translation is virtù from the Latin virtus, which carries broad connotations of valor, excellence, character and worth. The classical concept of ‘civic virtue’ as put forward by philosophers such as Aristotle as a moral code applicable to both rulers and subjects, contrasts with Machiavelli’s concept of virtù, which is applicable to rulers of state. Machiavelli’s virtù is ‘political virtue’, that is virtue defined both within and by politics. Political virtue consists of knowing how to make use of an art or skill to advance in the world. It is this idea that he puts forth, the ability of a ruler to do whatever must be done in order to achieve success, for it is the successful ruler who is the virtuous one. In Chapter VI, Machiavelli extols the virtues of ‘remarkable men’, specifically those of Cyrus, Romulus and Theseus. Men he believes to fully embrace the idea of virtù. Though each man individually faced his own hurdles to overcome, such as Romulus who if not abandoned at birth, would not have wanted to become King of Rome. Despite their luck or fortuna it was their virtù that gave them the ability to overcome and use their adversities, like Cyrus using the ‘Persians discontented under the rule of the Medes’. For as Machiavelli states: “If their deeds and careers are examined...
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...Virtue ethics is a theory used to make moral decisions. It does not rely on religion, society or culture. The theory is the view that the foundation of morality is the development of good character traits, or virtues. A person is good, then, if he has virtues and lacks vices. There can be as many as 100 virtuous character traits, which contribute to making someone a “good” person. Examples of some virtues would be Integrity, Kindness, Gratitude, and Forgiveness. There are many more of course. Virtue theory places special emphasis on moral education since virtuous character traits are developed in one's youth; adults, therefore, are responsible for instilling virtues in the young. The failure to properly develop virtuous character traits will result in the child acquiring vices or bad character traits instead. Vices include cowardice, insensibility, injustice, and vanity. Virtue ethics says that it is not only important to do the right thing, but also to have the required dispositions, motivations, and emotions in being good and doing right. We should enjoy doing good, because we are good. It isn't only about action but also about emotions, character, and moral habits. I believe if your parents instilled you with good charatertistics since birth, you will carry them on into adulthood. When you enter adulthood, you have a good understanding how society works and can desifer if something your parents said during childhood was not 100% true. For example, If your parents...
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...thinkers such as Locke & Jefferson to medieval & Roman thinkers back to Plato & Aristotle. (a) communitarian theory, (b) natural law theory, (c) egalitarian theory, (d) conventionalism. 2. The type of virtuous social order envisioned by Plato is called a __________. (a) democracy, (b) plutocracy, (c) meritocracy, (d) elected monarchy. 3. One of the basic ways in which one develops a virtuous character is from _______. (a) role-modeling, (b) having “peak experiences” & moving on to a higher stage, (c) just conforming to one’s culture, (d) studying philosophy. 4. Aristotle’s moral theory argues that _________________ is the primary end of human action. (a) following one of two extremes, (b) promoting utility, (c) acquiring virtues, (d) the happy life. 5. Another way of describing the end referred to in question 4 above is to___________________. (a) follow one’s duty, (b) contribute to human flourishing, (c) being civic, (d) fulfill the need for moderate pleasures. 6. In the long line of thinkers who have contributed to Natural Law theory of rights, one of the principles first put forth by Plato as both a natural & rational...
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...The Scrutiny of Virtue Virtue is a mean condition which falls between the extremes of excess and deficiency which are both subject to vices. Either of those two vices, or the practices of base behaviors, happen to rely on the virtue that one aims for. For instance, courage is a virtue of which cowardice and rashness are the deficiency and excess of respectively. Evidence of this is seen in Book II, Chapter 9 of Nichomachean Ethics where Aristotle mentions “…virtue of character is a mean condition, and in what way, namely because it is a mean between two kinds of vice, the one resulting from excess and the other from deficiency…” It is important to understand that virtue is not acquired naturally but rather through being-at-work. Virtue is not merely a habit of preoccupation of what one deems right or wrong, on the other hand it is an adherence to active states. The latter matter mentioned above can also be thought of as being-at-work. If one does not captivate to see how being at work is indispensable to the meaning of virtue, one cannot practice virtue. For this reason, one might ponder, “What are the implications of being-at-work?” The implications of being-at-work lay the foundation of the path to happiness. A happiness that contrary to popular belief, is not slavishly tied to circumstances whose lasting effects are but temporary, but a happiness that can only be obtained as a result of living a virtuous life. Likewise, a true friendship will help an individual in...
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... and diabolically incongruous man named John has fooled everyone in his life that he is the epitome of perfection. Seen as a role model, man of the year gentleman, the whole town holds respect for him for changing their lives. However, he is in fact the exact opposite. Though his actions appear the most moral of men, he is full of nothing but vice. He works as a salesman, selling the common folk items for far more than they are worth. He lies by exaggerating the benefits of products and ultimately swindling people into purchasing objects they do not need, yet leaving them with goods they are convinced they want. Never once has this hedonistic, egotistical man plan to produce a positive consequence for others from his...
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...Threats on Virtue Ethics Situationist theories is now known to pose a threat on to virtue ethics like Aristotle’s. Aristotle’s theory is very simple and straight forward, once people have the ‘right’ or ‘proper’ virtues, with practice it will never change. In this paper I am going to argue against Aristotelian ethics because people do not always keep their virtues in certain situations. Aristotle claims that once a virtue is learned, ‘come to light’, practice and lived by, the person practicing it will never change it. Aristotelian ethics is the practice of virtues, a median between the two vices that is “right”, also known as virtue ethics. Once someone finds the correct balance or the golden median between the extremes, vices, it becomes a virtue once practiced. This is something someone can practice and it becomes habit. Once done enough, it becomes who you are, the very thing you stand for and “will never change”. An Aristotelian argument would go something like this: (P1) A golden mean is practiced. (P2) Golden mean becomes a virtue. (P3) Virtue is something that is never broken. (C1)Virtue is practiced and never broken no matter the situation. This is where I do not agree, “Will never change”. I will provide an example of what I perceive as virtue ethics. This can be related to boot camp. Kids go to boot camp because they are misbehaving, or not acting the way their parents think they should. They don’t value the right things, they have no virtues. Once at boot...
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