Week 4 Flashcards
Who is the father of virtue ethics?
Artistotle
Main idea of virtue ethics?
Distinguishes between good character traits, or virtues, and bad character traits, or vices
Connects the having of good character traits with the good life
How does virtue ethics differ from utilitarianism and deontology?
U + D all about how one should ACT (what should we do)
VE all about “what should I be like” - was is the best kind of person to be and what is the good life.
How does Ross see we should act?
act in accordance with the most weighty prima facie duty in the situation at hand.
How does Kant say we should act?
act in accordance with the CI
How is the moral significance of acts seen by aristotle?
The moral import of acts, then, lies, for Aristotle, in what it says about the actor rather than its conformance to any Rule, principle, or duty.
What terms of moral appraisal are used in virtue ethics?
Instead of right and wrong we have praiseworthy or blameworthy acts. Instead of good and bad we have virtuous and vicious.
Acts are of interest insofar as they are praiseworthy, and they are praiseworthy insofar as they exemplify virtues
Questions asked by virtue ethics?
“what is it to live well?”
“what is the good life?”
“what makes a praiseworthy or blameworthy act?”
What is meant by the “good” that we aim for in virtue ethics? What is “Eudaimonia”
How is this tied into the goal of actions according to ve?
‘well-being’, ‘happiness’, ‘blessedness’, ‘human flourishing’. Eudaimonia in this sense is not a subjective, but an objective, state. It characterizes the well-lived life
According to Aristotle, we should think about the good for a human in precisely the same way we think about the good for a shipbuilder. So, first, we have to figure out what is the function of being human: what is a person for? Then, we’ll have the tools to figure out what it means to say that someone is a good person.
the goal of every action and decision is to make a good action and a good decision
how does one obtain eudaemonia
This well-being comes from a lifetime in the exercise of virtues. Better put: eudaemonia consists in a lifetime in the exercise of virtues
that is, there is nothing more to eudaemonia, or a live well-lived, than a life lived in the expression of virtue
What is a virtue?
A mean between two vices
This is sometimes called ‘the golden mean’
It distinguishes character traits from good character traits
Name some classical virtues
Bravery Temperance Generosity Caring Compassion Courage Benevolence
What is a problem with grounding ethics in utility maximizing calculations (as with utilitarianism) or the CI?
How is this problem avoided by virtue ethics?
The rules of morality can be either too general or too particular.
by avoiding framing morality in terms or rules or fundamental principles.
Objection to virtue ethics?
1) Aristotle relied on the idea of human nature as that which determines which character traits are good ones (virtues) and which are bad ones (vices).
-If there is some on thing we can call human nature, there seems to be a lot of disagreement over just what it is.
….how do we define the “good” life?
2) Conflicting virtues - how do you know which one to follow?
- All VE tells us to be is virtuous.
3) Belief in tradition as defining the sense of “good” in moral communities has potential to buy into traditional and conventional vales (“good” nurse is subordinate to doctor)
What is the proposed solution to the first objection and how is it problematic in itself?
solution: tie the virtues to the specific nursing community.
This is tied into the idea that the nursing community is shaped by a long standing set of traditions… but what about when those traditions change?
