Aristotelian virtue ethics

Question 1

What is good for Human Beings in Aristotelian virtue ethics?

Answer 1

• Our various activities aims at specific ‘goods’ ie medicine aims at health thus there’s a purpose for us doing things (ends)

What is good for human beings?
3 types of things which are good for human beings;

1- Goods of the Mind(intelligence, courage etc)
2-Goods of the Body(strength, health etc)
3-External goods(wealth, food etc)

• Humans want health, wealth + knowledge.

Aristotelian virtue ethics does not have strict rules or instructions to be morally good but focuses on character of individuals developing into a virtuous person + contracting a moral life as a whole.

Question 2

What is Eudaimonia?

Answer 2

Eudaimonia = the good for human life ‘living well + fairing well’ - usually defied as ‘flourishing’

• Eudaimonia is an end (a goal for human beings) its like having abundance

ie animals flourish when there needs are met in abundance so its the good life for human beings and to achieve it , is to have the best human life we can live.

Question 3

Why is Eudaimonia not simply ‘happiness’

Answer 3

• We can talk about people being in a happy phycological state in particular perhaps like utilitarianism - however Eudaimonia is not a state of mind.
• Eudaimonia isnt simply something subjective but objective(nothing directly about their state of mind or judgement of the person themselves
• Eudaimonia isnt something easily changed, it doesn’t come and go same as happiness its an evaluation of a persons life as a whole - making it a stable judgement.

Question 4

Is Eudaimonia the only good? What are our ‘Final Ends’?

Answer 4

Given that we think pleasure, knowledge, honour etc are good how can Eudaimonia be the ‘only good’? as if there’s more than one ‘ends’ to what we do surely eudemonia cannot be our only ‘good’

But NO - we might seek something for our own sake & for the sake of something else etc but everything we pursuit for its own sake (pleasure,knowledge,honour) can also be in pursuit of eudaimonia and living a ‘good life’

• Everything we do is for the sake of living + fairing well
• The good should be self -sufficient ie makes life desirable on its own so ‘Eudaimonia’ is the ‘most’ desirable thing so cant desire something better.

Thus Eudaimonia = The Only self-sufficient good.

Question 5

What does ‘ergon’ mean?

Answer 5

Ergon = somethings function/purpose ie an eyes function is to see and so it fulfils its arête well.

Question 6

What is an ‘arete’?

Answer 6

Arete = somethings virtue - how well its fulfilled its ergon eg. an eyes function is to see and its virtue( arete is to see well and sharply
so sharply= an eyes arete.

Question 7

Explain the Function argument?

Answer 7

Aristotle argued that we are ‘rational’ + guided by ‘reason’.

(we aren’t guided by life, consciousness or perception because we share all those things w animals s aren’t the characteristics of human beings)

Our ‘Ergon’ = living as rational human beings + living in accordance w reason + virtues of human beings
To fulfil our ergon we MUST be guided by the Right Reasons so eudaimonia is living a life which exercises the virtues.

pleasure? - people find pleasure in whatever they love so eudaimonia invloves pleasure
Virtues? - to possess virtues isn’t enough to reach eudaimonia it require that one acts upon them using virtues + achievements for good purposes are better than simply having pleasures.
Wealth? - in order to live virtuously ie being generous we need a certain amount of external goods such as wealth.

Question 8

What is a Virtue?

Answer 8

A Virtue - Trait of our mind/character that helps us achieve a good life in accordance w reason.

Aristotle argues we become virtuous through practical wisdom, upbringing + habit. Repeatedly doing virtuous action overtime makes a virtuous person - so to be virtuous is to be predisposed to do virtues acts.

Question 9

What are Vistues as Character traits?

Answer 9

Aristotle states anything that’s a part of the soul(the mind) is either a passion, a faculty or a state(trait) of character. Since virtues are part of our soul they must fall under one of these categories.

Virtues are a state of character:
- Character has certain stability + longevity, they last much longer + change less easily than other states of mind’ but some traits stop us from leading ‘good life’ ie greed or being short-tempered (Vices)

Eg Passions - our bodies appetites (food,sex etc) + our emotions/feelings accompanied by pain or pleasure cannot be virtues for 3 reasons

1 - just having a particular passion ie hunger doesn’t make us a good or bad individual

2 - We often don’t choose our passions whereas virtues are related to the choices we make (an act of will)

3 - Virtues concern how we are disposed to feel an act but virtues can’t be these because we don’t naturally have virtues, we aren’t virtues by nature, we have to acquire them.

Question 10

What is a ‘Vice’?

Answer 10

A Vice = a bad characteristic / character trait.

Question 11

What is Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean?

Answer 11

The Doctrine of the Mean - says Virtues + Vices actions lie between ‘Intermediate’ the 2 Vices of ‘Too much’ or ‘Too little’ and we have to have a balance / good in-between.eg ‘Courageous’ the Vice(deficient) would be Cowardly + the Vice on the other side would be Rash

Moral virtues allow us to…

“feel passions at the right times, with the right reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motives in the right way”

Aristotle stated that Education plays a big role in the development of Moral Character + how we acquire virtues. He argues we quire virtues through “Habit” in particular habits in childhood + our upbringing. Therefore we learn things through experience + habits and have to develop a Virtue because we aren’t Virtuous by nature so have to actively develop it through activities.

Question 12

State what Practical wisdom is

Answer 12

Practical wisdom = acting on info / wisdom of choice ( you choose)

Question 13

Explain Practical wisdom

Answer 13

Practical wisdom is practical reasoning or Phronesis. It is a true + reasoned state/ capacity to act with regard to things that are good or bad for man + the ability to deliberate and then act upon that deliberation.

Practical reasoning investigates what we can change + aims at making good choices (deliberation) because reasoning about what we can change is Deliberation , so practical reason is expressed in Deliberation. We only deliberate o what we can change/decide not theoretical reasoning

There’s no set of finite rules for applying general knowledge of what is ‘good’ to particular situations, practical wisdom cannot be taught it requires experience (a posteori) We CANT have virtues without practical wisdom)

The role of practical wisdom involves a general conception of what is good and the ability to deliberate well and then act on that deliberation so involves both general knowledge + ability to reason

Question 14

What is Contextualism?

Answer 14

Contextualism claims we need to look at the context. There are no rules for applying general knowledge of the good life to individual situations.

Question 15

State the 3 Criticisms of Aristotle’s virtue ethics.

Answer 15

• Guidance on how to act
• Conflicts between Virtues
• Possibility of Circularity

Question 16

Explain the criticism of Aristotelian virtue ethics guidance on how to act

Answer 16

The doctrine of the mean is no practical help.
- too much or too little aren’t quantities on a single scale; the ‘mean’ is meaningless as its too vague on what vices + virtues to pick/thus how to act we need more precise instructions/guidance.

Reply from Aristotle -
The doctrine of the mean isn’t an algorithm or set formula for moral situation
- practical wisdom is needed to judge the mean; the mean is where the person with practical wisdom judges it to be
- It isn’t a matter of following a rule.

Question 17

Explain the criticism of Aristotelian virtue ethics ‘Conflicts between virtues’

Answer 17

The criticism argues that what if the virtues conflict eg justice and mercy for example if a man murdered someone should he be put to death as justice? well that would result in no mercy

Reply from Aristotle -
He argues that/denies this is possible;
- With Practical wisdom we ca know what virtue demands and avoid conflict therefore as long as we follow practical wisdom + the doctrine of the mean the virtues will never conflict.

Question 18

Explain the criticism of Aristotelian virtue ethics ‘The possibility of Circularity’

Answer 18

This criticism relates to Aristotles accounts of virtuous action + the virtuous person which causes problems;

• If an act is virtuous, it is an act that would be done by a virtuous person In this situation;
• A virtuous person is a person who os predesposed to do virtuos acts.

These definitions when taken together is that they don’t clarify what a virtuous act or person actually is.

The definitions circular as we have used the term ‘virtuous acts’ in order to define what a vitreous act is. Its an epistemological issue, we never know what to really do at any given point.

Response by Annas;
Virtue ethics does provide an amount of virtuous action by appealing to what the virtuous person would do. The amount encourages us to think of what I should do in my situation by thinking of the matter from the third person.

Question 19

Explain the ‘Skill analogy’

Answer 19

We can understand how virtues are acquired by an analogy with acquiring practical skills ie playing a musical instrument. There’s 2 parts to the analogy;

1 - How the development of the skill begins. We form dispositions about how to feel/behave through what we do+ the same is true for practical skills.

Eg. your given instructions on how to play piano every single song but you’ve never played before regardless if u get given instructions you still wont be bale to play because you’ve never practically been taught before. (so you need to incorporate practical wisdom first).

2 - Annas argues whilst we learn from others, this is only half of the process. As with practical skills, the aim in moral education is to get the child to learn/think for themelsves which involves 2 skills. The first is following rules to develop knowledge on how to respond in those situations appropriately and the second is understanding ‘why this’ and not that, the virtue of learning how to justify your choices + reflect upon them. Thus we understand more about what is good + all of this is part of developing our practical widsom.