Virtue Ethics Flashcards
How is the Virtue Theory different from most ethical theories?
Instead of doing the right thing in a given situation it focuses on how one can be a better person.
Virtue Ethics began in Greek philosophy originated from which philosopher?
Aristotle who studied under Plato.
Aristotle’s key argument is that…
Everything an individual does is for an end, an ultimate end is the chief good.
In Virtue Ethics what is the main goal of life?
Eudaemonia which everyone should peruse.
How must you gain the ‘golden mean’ or ‘middle way’?
Find the middle way between a vice of deficiency and vice of excess. For example, courage is the middle way between cowardice and rashness.
What does this phrase refer to: “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”
That in following virtue ethics you can know what is good but there will be a need to resist other temptations on the path to Eudaemonia or ‘the supreme happiness’.
Who criticised deontology and teleological ethical practices and how?
Elizabeth Anscombe argued they are both pre-occupied with rules instead of taking account psychology and emotions.
Anscombe criticises moral theories as they…
Allow any moral act if it brings around any good.
Similar to Anscombe, Alasdair MacIntyre suggests what?
That we shouldn’t be focused on laws/rules we should be asking moral questions of how to make the most of human lives.
Who likens becoming a better person to how a parent helps a child grow in relation to their personal strengths and weaknesses?
Keenan
Alasdair Mac Intyre thinks virtues are to be understood how?
Within communities not just individually.
Who thinks that philosophers have neglected vices and virtues?
Phillipa Foot, she sees virtues are beneficial in the same way good health is a strength of the body.
