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*Ethics > Virtue ethics > Flashcards

Virtue ethics Flashcards

1
Q

what is virtue ethics

A

ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO MORALITY
- we should aim to become better people by developing positive character traits called virtues

-right and wrong not sole focus - instead purse just actions that encourage character development to make us just people

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2
Q

Virtue ethics - telos

A

Everything in the world has a purpose or telos.
The purpose of a knife is to cut, if a knife did not cut, it would not be a good knife, hence would not be achieving its telos in life.

As human’s are far more complex than knives, so too must our telos be.

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3
Q

what type of ethics is virtue ethics

A

teleological ethics

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4
Q

Virtue ethics - eudaimonia

A

As human’s are far more complex than knives, so too must our telos be.

The purpose of human life is to live a good (virtuous) life and in doing so, achieve eudaimonia.
Eudaimonia is a contented state of being happy, healthy and prosperous = ultimate end of ends/goal

  • eudaemonia encompasses all aspects of happiness (political, emotional, philosophical) and provides a goal in life, example of someone to achieve this is Mother teresa
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5
Q

What did Aristotle think about how we live our lives

A
  • every action is focused on an aim or outcome
    e. g. we get up every morning to go to school, to get an education, to get good grades, to get a good job, to earn good money, to be able to live prosperous happy lives
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6
Q

Aristotle thoughts on pleasure

A
  • more than just pleasure in life and he understood it in 3 ways…
  1. happiness as a … life of enjoyment of pleasure
  2. happiness as a … free member of society
  3. happiness as a … a philosopher
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7
Q

for Aristotle how do we achieve eudaimonia

A

have to practice skills or virtues to achieve happiness and live good lives - with no negative vices

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8
Q

What are the 2 types of virtues?

A

Intellectual virtues

Moral virtues

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9
Q

what are intellectual virtues?

A
  • virtues we are born with.
  • We are all born with a certain intellect – a virtue that should not be squandered!!!
  • all our intellects are different. Some of us are scientifically minded, creative arts, languages or literary subjects.
  • Despite these differences we should all strive to be the best we can be. E.g. if we are not scientifically minded, we cannot expect to be the equal of Einstein, but that does not mean, we cannot do well in our science GCSE.
  • developed by training yourself/being educated e.g playing the piano takes time, commitment and will power
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10
Q

what are moral virtues?

A
  • we can all achieve excellence in moral virtues or ‘ethikai aretai’ irrespective of intelligence.
  • Moral value or excellence is obtainable by all as it is based on our character, not on our ‘God-given’ gifts
  • developed by practice and habit e.g. being compassionate to the less fortunate helps to develop the moral virtue of compassion
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11
Q

what are the 4 favoured virtues for aristotle

A

the 4 cardinal virtues

  1. Temperance / moderation e.g. people either live life in moderation (try to avoid debt) or to be too thrifty with money and live life to the fullest
  2. Justice e.g. teacher who treats all pupils equally and gives reward and punishment when justified
  3. Courage e.g. a man who has a phobia of snakes and goes to councilling, then eventually overcomes his fear by handling a snake
  4. Prudence / practial wisdom e.g. a man knows he should be honest, he must know how to apply honesty in balance with othwe considerations (requiring practical wisdom/caustiousness) like ugly prom dress
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12
Q

what is agent-centred

A

ethical approaches that are focused on the development of the person rather than on the morality of what they’re doing

virtue ethics is agent-centered rather than act-centred

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13
Q

how can the way we act benefit society?

A
  • the moral development of the person is central
  • if we aim to develop a certain virtue and in the process of practising perform moral act, our virtue is developing

e.g. a woman wishes to develop courage so steps in to stop a mugger - in turn performs a good act which benefits society

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14
Q

phrased used to describe virtues

A

‘practice makes perfect’

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15
Q

how can we achieve moral excellence?

A

We can achieve moral excellence through developing two forms of wisdom:

Theoretical Wisdom

Practical Wisdom (Phronesis)

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16
Q

what is theoretical wisdom

A

Theoretical Wisdom is known from books, e.g. Plato’s Republic.

Theoretical Wisdom gives us knowledge of the virtues that will lead to us eudaimonia.

17
Q

what is practical wisdom / freeness

A

Practical wisdom is application of theoretical wisdom to practical situations.

Phronesis, like any practical skill, requires practice:
“We acquire virtues by first doing virtuous acts.”
e.g. woman and the mugger

18
Q

what are the 2 vices

A
  1. the vice of deficiency - distinct lack of the virtues
    e. g. deficient vice of courage is cowardice
  2. the vice of excess - too much of the virtue - leads to excess rather than moderation e.g. excess of courage = rashness
19
Q

what is the golden mean / doctrine of the mean?

A
  • at some point between the 2 vices is the virtue - known as golden mean / doctrine of the mean?
  • virtues provided a balance of the extremes of the 2 vices and gives a pure virtue between the vices
20
Q

can every action be virtuous

A

NO

some actions do not have a mean and searching for one is pointless e.g. rape

21
Q

what are aristotles moral virtues?

A

Aristotle’s 12 moral virtues are not a set middle between the two vices, but rather a sliding scale that can move towards either of the vices dependant upon the situation.

e.g.
Excess_______ Virtue________Deficiency

rashness____courage______cowardice
buffoonery____wittiness______boorishness
shyness____modesty______shamelessness

22
Q

What are moral saints

A
  • there are occasions when we have no idea what the virtuous thing to do is so we need guidance.
  • In these instances, Aristotle would suggest to look to our community for outstanding people and follow their example. e.g.WWJD?
  • modelling the behaviour and virtues of those we consider virtuous/shown important character traits or virtues to provide insertion and guidance for us
  • they aren’t expected to be perfect, just challenge us to aspire to greater moral heights
23
Q

examples of moral saints

A
  1. princess diana - worked with many charities like kids with HIV/AIDS which is virtuous but still had less virtues traits meaning she wasnt perfect but mainly good

2 Jesus - encouraged his diciples and everyone to live virtuous lives like him and most christians aspire to be like him and even give up their lives (priests)

24
Q

Contemporary thinkers

MacIntyre,

A

Alasdair MacIntyre,
- believed modern ethical morality has lost its way and words such as good,right and wrong are purely subjective/mean nothing

  • says morality should be focused on Aristotle’s idea of developing your telos as otherwise we’re in danger of losing our moral wisdom
  • a mans purpose is in what he does and therefore its judged accordingly by society, who decide whether we are a moral saint
  • he encourages us to return to the basis of Aristotle’s understanding of virtue by encouraging society to assist in developing virtues that are relevant to the contemporary times (virtues expanded by Jesus/Aristotle’s aren’t completely necessary today)
25
Q

Contemporary thinkers

Anscombe, Foot

A

Elizabeth Anscombe (1911-2001)

  • believed other theories didn’t have the foundation to provide moral guidelines as they relied on ideas of reward and punsihment, either a divine law-giver or Consequence
  • Believed old systems couldnt provide a basis as guidelines fol morals
  • she required a return to ideals of eudaimonia (Aristotle) and to a morlaity based on the person (agent) not act/outcome. plus other theories are too focused on independent actions, not morality to unite communities

Philip Foot (1920-)

  • attempts to update virtue ethics while maintaining its roots to Aristotle
  • believes virtues are a way for people to flourish by correcting tendencies we naturally have to vices
  • she’d say there’s a human inclination to self interest, which ought to be corrected by becoming more compassionate/ benevolent
  • believed virtues don’t guarantee happiness, just helps us move towards it
  • emphasised virtues are only virtuous as long as they are used in correct ways to bring good outcomes e.g, someone who needs courage to rob a bank isn’t virtuous
26
Q

Contemporary thinkers

Taylor and Hursthouse

A

Richard Taylor (1919-2003)

  • very outspoken against the influence that religion had upon morality - believed humans should aim for development/ eudaimonia but religious teachings undermine this and encourage the opposite idea
  • he says that Christianity emphasises equality and to an extent the status quo of a ‘self-negating’ equality, rather than encouraging people to strive to be greater/ better people

Rosalind Hursthouse (1943-)

  • main contribution to the understanding of ethics is to address the criticism levelled at virtue ethics that it doesn’t provide moral guidance in dilemmas
  • says it doesn’t explain how we would/should act, instead how a virtuous person would think about a dilemma
  • strong believer in Aristotles approach to morality
  • says virtues assist our practical reasoning, enabling us to be better and respond to moral dilemmas in a virtuous way and therefore become virtuous
27
Q

Contemporary thinkers

Slote and feminism

A

Michael Slote (1941-)

  • used the words ‘admirable’ and ‘deplorable’ as alternatives to ‘good’ and ‘bad’, which he thought required clarification
  • if something is either admirable or deplorable then we know by definition what the correct action to pursue is going to be be I.e to do the admirable and avoid the deplorable

Feminism
Aristotles teachings on virtues are aimed at masculine attributes e.g. Bravery, honour and comradeship rather than feminine virtues e.g, empathy and compassion

28
Q

Strengths of virtue ethics

A
  • appeals to both secular and religious morality. An atheist can aspire to be like Jesus without believing he is the son of God. To counter Taylor, the example of Jesus is an inspiration to people of different faiths or those of no religion
    FOR ATHEISTS AND THEISTS
  • principles of VE compatible with religious believes and found in religious writings as they focus on agents moral development not actions
  • doesn’t have set rules like utilitarianism (gg4gn) = flexible
  • avoids inequalities that absolutist ethical systems cause and the dubious morality of actions that relativism justify
  • logical theory as it focus on practical reasoning and traits to help society - natural to want to better yourself
  • strive for society to be virtuous therefore the betterment of mankind
  • circular - you become a virtuous person which make you help others willingly and then they become virtuous and want to help others etc
  • relative/subjective nature of Phronesis allows for a personal approach to morality - thus isn’t constrained by objective/ absolute laws like deontology is
  • gives life a purpose
  • golden mean makes theory practical
  • morality isn’t based nor constrained by intelligence
  • character driven/ agent centred - making you better (Chinese room)
  • moral saints give guidance/ help in difficult situations
29
Q

Weakness of virtue ethics

A
  • Susan Wolf claims of everyone is virtuous then there won’t be variety or excitement in the world, we need negative traits to admire positive ones
  • Robert Louden - you could potentially justify immoral acts in the name of personal development e.g, getting drunk to understand the feeling to avoid doing it the future
  • moral saints are virtuous but advice may not be right for me, e,g, Mother Teresa says abortion is wrong but if I cannot mentally cope with a child, it may be the wrong advice for me
  • loop holes = someone misunderstanding their purpose and incorrectly performs immoral acts e.g, stop a mugger by killing them
  • difficult to apply to moral problems as doesn’t provide a method of what to do, except to be virtuous
  • at what point does a virtue become a vice? Is there a definitive cross over point or is it purely subjective?
  • life may not have a telos, if it does, how do we know its eudaimonia. Plus knowledge of virtue/telos isn’t same as using it
  • it’s difficult to apply the golden mean - either through natural time constrains of ethical decision making OR not knowing how to apply it correctly
  • virtues sometimes clash with each other, which ones no 1?
  • moral saints = no clear guidance (how do they help issue of abortion?) and swine you’re around/ open to good people
  • issue of Aristotles masculine/feminine virtues

*Ethics (14 decks)

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