Virtue Ethics Flashcards
What are the virtues?
Dispositions of character
Acquired by ethical training and practise
Displayed by both emotional responses and actions
Promote excellence
Enable virtuous people and society as a whole to flourish
What is the relationship between the virtues and ‘the good life’?
It is only through cultivating a virtuous character that we can hope to attain Eudaimonia.
Explain Foot’s account of injury
Injury example - prevents the human body from functioning, so it is something we all naturally avoid, otherwise we cannot fulfil basic needs. It is these basic needs which give rise to a number of virtues, which promote human wellbeing.
How are the virtues linked to culture?
Macintyre - we can’t judge behaviour independently of intentions, and intentions cannot be characterised independently of their cultural setting.
Abortion example for cultural relativity of virtues
Abortion was not entirely significant among the poorest in society when virtues such as obedience to superiors were more important. But a shift to an emphasis on chastity and pregnancy within wedlock coincided with the growing importance of property rights.
What is the doctrine of the mean?
The principle that the virtuous person always has the response which is the midpoint between excess and deficiency - for example, courage. This does not necessarily mean that responses must be moderate; anger can be appropriate, for example.
Explain practical wisdom
Practical wisdom is the capacity to make informed moral decisions without reliance on any kind of formal decision making procedure.
What does practical wisdom involve?
Both knowledge of what is good or bad, and the ability to act on this knowledge
What kinds of insight does practical wisdom require?
Insight into what is good/bad (i.e. Flourishing), and what is required in a given situation in light of this knowledge.
Why isn’t virtue ethics subjective?
Because there is only one good; there is only one way of being right. Aristotle compares making the right decision to hitting a bullseye - it is easy to miss.
What are the major problems with virtue ethics?
- It does not provide enough guidance/conflicting duties
- What is human flourishing?
- There is no necessary link between virtue and flourishing
- Deontological response
- Utilitarian response
- Naturalistic fallacy
Problem of not giving enough guidance
Virtue ethics seems to be extremely vague. The doctrine of the mean is not much help in real situations - ‘too much’ and ‘too little’ for example, seem to be very subjective. Of course, Aristotle would respond that the mean is where the virtuous person judges it to be, but this seems to beg the question.
Response to ‘no guidance’
Rosalind Hursthouse argues that Elizabeth Anscombe implied that many action-guiding rules employ virtue and vice terms. These are ‘v-rules’, such as ‘don’t be uncharitable’.
Conflicting virtues example
Euthanasia - conflict between the virtue of benevolence, and the virtue of justice.
If we rely on practical wisdom for each individual case, this prevents any kind of consistency.
Explain the lack of a necessary link between flourishing and virtue
We can ask whether all virtuous people truly flourish - for example, Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake! Secondly, individuals such as Jimmy Saville who certainly were not virtuous seemed to live happy
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