Final Exam- Virtue Ethics

Question 1

o What it is:
§ Principle-based ethical theory,
§ Character-based ethical theory,
§ Virtues, § Vices, § Golden mean,
§ Practical reason (aka. Judgement),
§ Habit (or habitual),
§ Emotions, desires and impulses,
§ Possibility that there might be several right actions,
§ When faced with an ethical dilemma, the morally right thing to do is…

Answer 1

• BASED ON RULES AND PRINCIPLES: rely on virtues that a certain situation requires. when other theories rely on what we should do, V.E.- What would a virtuous person do?
• VIRTUES correspond to a mean between 2 extremes of an action. Ex: Dishonesty and Harshness are both VICES (both extremes- both wrong)- Vice of too much and Vice of not enough. Honesty is a midpoint between the two and that is where the VIRTUE lands.
• We were all born with a CHARACTER or personality that affects our choices.
• Since our earliest years, we have been surrounded by ROLE MODELS that will affect how virtuous we may become within years.
• We build HABITS around virtues we were taught to apply since childhood.
• Some people are not born in environments that prone virtues: war zones, where children are generally surrounded by the greedy, violent. This shows that virtue also requires LUCK.
• In another way, EMOTIONS also share our perception of others.- Emotional abilities must be trained- important in informing context.
• JUDGEMENT, combined with experience, will help us get better at locating the mean of actions which is at the basis of PRACTICAL REASONING.

Question 2

o Strengths

Answer 2

§ Acknowledges moral complexity and, as such, is a more complete theory than the other ones seen so far.
being good(virtuous) is an art, not a science or set of rules that can be taught and understood nearly and all at once
virtue requires a multi-dimensional set of skills that involve the whole of oneself (practical reasoning or judgement, sound info and facts, good role models, experience and habit, sensitivity, emotional intelligence and maturity, certain consciousness of the body, emotions, luck)

§ Motivation

§ Recognizes the partiality of human beings (does not require us to be impartial).
unlike Utilitarianism and Deontology, Virtue ethics doesn’t overemphasize impartiality.

Question 3

o Weaknesses

Answer 3

§ Vagueness when it comes to making a decision. (????)
§ The difficulty of attaining virtue (which partly depends on Fate)
being surrounded by good ppl is about luck
§ Slavery in Antiquity and the fact that no one questioned it, not even Aristotle: was there ever an entirely virtuous person alive on Earth?

Question 4

Documentary “the Social Dilemma” (Netflix)-

Answer 4

Virtue ethics example