virtue ethics power point jm 09-02-09

7/31/2019 Virtue Ethics Power Point JM 09-02-09

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VIRTUE ETHICSVIRTUE ETHICSFrom Aristotle to the 21st century


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Why Should I Be Moral?Why Should I Be Moral?Because of My Character!Because of My Character!


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AretologyAretology

Arete - Excellence, Strength,Virtue

Aretaic Ethics - Strength-Centred

EthicsEmphasizes Virtues (Strengths)

and Vices (Weaknesses) of

CharacterNot What Should I Do? (both

Deontology and Teleology) but

What Kind of Person Should I


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Aristotles EthicsAristotles Ethics

384-322 B.C.The Nicomachean Ethics

Two Kinds of Persons

Continent:Do what is right, but not necessarily

because they want to

Temperate:Do what is right because they want to;

the more holistic person


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The Goal of HumanThe Goal of Human

ExistenceExistence

Eudaimonia

Flourishing, Happiness

A Lifelong Pursuit,

accomplished Rationally, through

theoretical wisdom andcontemplation

Functionally, throughpractical wisdom andpolitics


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The Goal of Human Existence &The Goal of Human Existence &

EudaimoniaEudaimoniaAimed at the perfecthappiness which is theperfect activity

An excellence in anyactivity in accordance withthe nature of that activity

Thus, Human happiness isthe activity of the soul inaccordance with perfectvirtue (excellence). (I.8;

Pojman, 394).


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The VirtuesThe Virtues

Intellectual Virtues Wisdom, Understanding, Prudence

Taught through instruction

Moral Virtues Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance

The result of habit

Not natural or inborn but acquired through

practice Habit or disposition of the soul (our

fundamental character) which involvesboth feeling and actionThose strengths of character that enable us to

flourish(Hinman)


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The VirtuesThe Virtues

Defined / understood in terms ofspheres of human experience

Fear of importantdamages

Courage

Bodily appetites andtheir pleasures

Moderation

Distribution of limitedresources Justice

Attitude to slightsand damages

Mildness ofTemper

Adapted from Martha C. Nussbaum, Non-Relative Virtues


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The Doctrine of the MeanThe Doctrine of the Mean

Proper position between two extremes Vice of excess

Vice of deficiency

Not an arithmetic median Relative to us and not the thing

Not the same for all of us, or

Any of us, at various occasions

In this way, then, every knowledgeable

person avoids excess and deficiency, butlooks for the mean and chooses it(II.6)


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The MeanThe Mean

Vice of Deficiency Virtue Vice of Excess

Cowardice Courage Foolhardiness

Stinginess Generosity Prodigality

Shamelessness Modesty Bashfulness

Maliciousness Righteous

Indignation

Enviousness


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Virtues and the MeanVirtues and the Mean

Defined through Reason Education, contemplation, reflection

Balanced with Other Virtues andapplied usingphronesis: To have any single strength of character in full

measure, a person must have the other onesas well.*Courage without good judgement is blindCourage without perseverance is short-livedCourage without a clear sense of your own abilities

is foolhardy

The virtuous person has practicalwisdom, the ability to know when andhow best to apply these various moral

perspectives. (*Hinman)


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Virtues and CommunityVirtues and Community

Virtues are defined and lived incommunitySharing a common identity and storyModelling the Virtues

Importance of Moral Exemplars (Saints andHeroes)

Practicing the Virtues Habit isCrucial!

In a word, then, like activities produce likedispositions. Hence we must give our activities acertain quality, because it is their characteristicsthat determine the resulting dispositions. So it is amatter of no little importance what sort of habitswe form from the earliest age it makes a vast

difference, or rather all the difference in the world.II.i. Po a 396


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Other Virtue EthicistsOther Virtue Ethicists

G.E.M. (Elizabeth)Anscombe

In 1958 she published an

articlecalled Modern Moral

Philosophyarguingthat we should return to

the virtues,as the idea of a law

without a lawgiverwas incoherent.


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Alasdair MacIntyreAfter Virtue (1981)

Modern moral

philosophy is bankrupt;it must recover thetradition of virtue.

Importance of Narrative

as alive tradition youneed to know where

ethics has come from.


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Philippa FootTries to modernise Aristotle.

Ethics should not be about drytheorising, but about making the

world a better place (she was one ofthe founders of Oxfam)

Virtue contributes to the good life.


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Rosalind HursthouseA neo-Aristotelian Aristotle

was wrong on women and

slaves, and there is no needto be limited to his list ofvirtues.

We acquire virtuesindividually, and

so flourish, but we do so

together


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Carol GilliganIn a Different Voice

(1982)

Developmental theorieshave been built onobservations andassumptions about menslives and thereby distort

views of female personality.The kinds of virtues onehonors depend on the powerbrokers of ones society.

The Ethics of Care


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Michael SloteDevelops the feminist ethics of care,

and links it to a virtue ethics inspired

more by Hume and Hutchesons moral

sentimentalism than by Aristotle.

Slotes version of virtue ethics is agent-based(as opposed

to more Aristotelian forms which are said to beagent

focused) i.e. the moral rightness of acts isbased on the

virtuous motives or characters of the agent.The motives are all important.


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Martha Nussbaum

She interprets Aristotles

views asabsolutes justice,

temperance,

generosity etc. are essentialto human flourishing

in all societies and in alltimes.


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Examples of Virtue EthicsExamples of Virtue Ethics

Bruderhof andAmishcommunities

Anti-worldly

Pacifist

Family Story


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What makes one group virtuousWhat makes one group virtuous

and not another?and not another?

Inner-CityGangs

Commonvalues

Models

Virtuousactions

Codes ofhonour


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Ku Klux Klan?

Focused Live tradition

Stories and

Models

Common

enemy

The family isthe strength ofour nation.


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The Christian Church?

The Taliban?

The Scouting Movement?

Your school?

Your friends?


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Are the virtues the same forAre the virtues the same for

everyone?everyone?

People are very different.But we face the same basic

problems and have the same

basic needs.Everyone needs courage as

danger can always arise.

Some people are less well off, sowe will need generosity.

Everyone needs friends so we

need loyalty.


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Strengths of Virtue EthicsStrengths of Virtue Ethics

Importance of the Person, Motive,Heart, Conscience

Connection to Community

Realization that morality is notdefined by moments but by along-term process

Allowance for gray areas, varyingcontexts, different levels of moralmaturity and life contexts


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Weaknesses of VirtueWeaknesses of Virtue

EthicsEthicsDependence on strong

communities

Not easily applied to ethical

issues or to give us practicalsolutions

Demands time

Can be turned into a really poorduty-based ethics

Might be taken as situational

ethics


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ConclusionsConclusions

Utilitarianism and Deontology arehelpful

They demand some kind of larger

criteria or grounding, a largerview

Virtue ethics seems to provide

this viewIt seems to reflect Christian

ethics best, and

It is not dependent on any

virtue ethics power point jm 09-02-09

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