The Integration Of Virtue Analysis

Improved Essays
Over the course of the past century, the United States and western civilization as a whole have had front row seats in witnessing some of the greatest technological enhancements in mankind’s history. However, these improvements to our everyday life are not without their side effects. We as a society find ourselves more reliant on technology in our everyday lives with the expectations that everything will work fine and that we will be kept safe. This dependence highlights one example of the importance of virtues in engineering and how the engineer must take on the duty of looking out for the welfare of the public. I will discuss the integration of virtues into ethics according to Aristotle as well as my development as a student at Texas A&M …show more content…
Aristotle emphasized the importance of becoming a morally righteous person, not on necessarily performing morally correct acts. One of the crucial benefits of living a virtuous life, according to Aristotle, is the concept of eudaimonia, the Greek word for happiness or flourishing. Aristotle believed that happiness is the highest good and the final aim we all strive for, and every interim action we take is simply a means to this end. For example, one might take an internship at a company to make money or gain experience. While the two outcomes may seem like what the person taking the internship desired, they are simply a means to become happy. Making more money may mean they’re able to buy more things they like and having more experience means they might be able to find a better job down the line that they would enjoy much …show more content…
Fortunately, Texas A&M is one of the best engineering schools in the country and employs very competent and experienced professors who have drilled this high standard of competence and excellence into me. One looking at these repeated practices through the lens of Aristotle would conclude that such repetition is necessary to make a habit of holding myself and my work to the highest standard and realizing my full potential as an engineer. As a civil engineering major, what I do as a future engineer will have direct impact on society. People walk through buildings, drive on highways, and drink water and take showers every single day. To have a civil engineer who lacks competence and cannot successfully design a functioning bridge or crossing would result, in most cases, drastic and perhaps deadly consequences. This is why it is so crucial to repeatedly stress the excellence and care that engineers must take in their work. Tying into the value of competence is integrity. This value has been drilled into us as students from day one as it is stated clearly in the honor code that an aggie does not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do. As a civil engineer, you are responsible for creating the things that make civilization possible. The people who rely on your work for their everyday lives have put their trust in you and believe that you have

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    To conclude, Aristotle is a strong believer that in order to live a truly good life, a virtuous person is someone who performs the distinctive activity of being a human. Rationality is our unique activity, that is, the activity that characterizes us differently from animals. Since our rationality is our distinctive activity, its exercise is the supreme good. Moral virtue is simply a matter of performing well in the function of being human. In order to be virtuous, the end of human life could be called happiness (or living well).…

    • 185 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Detailed Account of Aristotle’s Position on Happiness and why it is a Human Good According to Aristotle, happiness is an experience that is desired by all human beings. However, there are distinct views regarding what kind of life is considered happy. Aristotle provides readers with different types of lives that are believed to make people happy, including accumulation of wealth and a life of fulfillment that is characterized by comfort and pleasure. He also posits that a happy life is that which is pleasant.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Even though Aristotle was not a direct student under Plato at The Academy, he became and developed into one of the most famous Greek philosophers. After his years spent at The Academy, Aristotle developed his moral of philosophy in his book the Nicomachean Ethics. In this book, Aristotle explains the origin, nature, and development of virtues, which are essential for achieving the best and highest good that human beings are capable of, which is happiness. According to Aristotle, happiness is defined as to live well and do well, where virtue is key, but alone it is not enough. In order to be happy, you need full virtue across a complete life, which means that you need to regularly perform all the virtues.…

    • 1602 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To Aristotle, character is defined by what outcomes or results use desire, the different types of actions we are enjoined to or prohibited from taking, and the habits we may be advised to cultivate within ourselves. For instance, we may feel obligated to pursue a life of duty through some sort of service, or we may feel concern for the public. The Greek ethical proposes, “What is good for man?”. Aristotle believes that ‘eudaimonia’, or happiness, is good for man.…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    But with many choices to make in ones persons lifetime, some of those choices will carry an immediate happiness or it can also cause and immediate devastation. Also their will be choices that will have a longer more painful route to happiness but at the end it will be for the greater good for ones happiness. Aristotle explains not only about happiness but also about virtue’s, now as explained virtues means having good purpose of morals and good character. Some explains of virtue are having generosity, friendship and also courage and as well the list goes on of virtues one can have. For virtues to be achieved one must make the correct…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Every art and every inquiry, and likewise every action and choice, seems to aim at some good, and hence it has been beautifully said that the good is that at which all things aim.” As Aristotle makes inquires and deliberates over what is the highest end for the human life, he debates over what constitutes the highest good. Throughout the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that we aim at some end through our pursuits of action, and that those ends are in some way connected at achieving the highest good. Aristotle suggests the possibility of happiness, translated from the Greek word eudaimonia, which refers to a “state of having a good indwelling spirit or being in a contented state of being healthy, happy and prosperous.” For the one who…

    • 1453 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The National Society of Professional Engineers Code of Ethics states that an engineer will hold the safety, health, and welfare of the public as above all else in their practice. According to this statement, an engineer will have to use sound judgment during his/her work to make sure that the effects of the decision are both ethically good and safe for the public. Virtues or character traits that make a person succeed in their purpose blend into engineering since all of the decisions that we as engineers have to make need to be for the better good of the public. In this paper, I will discuss how Aristotle defined the traits associated with the “virtuous person” and the relation between virtues and engineering practice. Aristotle believed that…

    • 946 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In class, we have been discussing ethical theories as well as practicing placing these theories to cases. Ethical theories are a set of principles of right conduct and a system of moral values. The field of ethics involves systematizing, defending, and deciding different concepts of right and wrong behavior. In this day, philosophers are known to separate ethical theories into either metaethics, normative ethics, or applied ethics. I’ve chosen to focus on John Stuart Mill and Aristotle’s opposing argumentative theories which help teach me to analyze the cases provided to me.…

    • 1664 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Engineers have to deal with increasing responsibilities as technology is each day more involved in our daily lives. Hence, it is important that engineers are able to make the correct decisions on which is the right way to act. Engineers can base themselves in the several norms and rules that are outlined by their professional organizations. However, there is a finite amount of things that can be stated as rules. For this reason, and as the Good Engineer reading proposes, it is important that engineers posses virtues that would enable them to distinguish what is good or wrong even if its is not explicitly expressed within a rule.…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Each human has a purpose in their life, an end goal, and when they reach that purpose they gain a greater understanding of what life and the things in that life are, “Aristotle agrees with Plato that all things have a purpose or function, and understanding those purposes, goals, or functions is how to understand things themselves.” (Classical Ethics, 37). Aristotle also believes that a humans can’t have true happiness without truly satisfying what there function is, “… Aristotle argued that happiness is not possible without the excellent functioning of a human being’s unique capacity or ability, that is, reason.” (Classical Ethics, 48). The Philosophers discuss the fact that one must be virtues and becomes virtues when searching for the good life, “Thus, Plato concludes that moral virtue is ultimately based on knowledge of the Supreme Form of the Good.”…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Aristotle and Epicurus are two Greek philosophers who had a significant impact on the people of their time based on their philosophical ideas, concepts, and theories. However, many of Aristotle’s views on ethics are still incorporated into modern philosophy. Their philosophies are quite different yet shared many commonalities. Aristotle’s Theory of Virtue in comparison to Epicurus’ Theory of Hedonism is substantially more realistic and more solid. A society would be better thriving off of Aristotle’s theory.…

    • 1777 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On page 118 of MP, Barcalow says that Aristotle, like many of the other ancient Greeks, thought that “the point of ethical reflection is to achieve happiness, advance our own interests, or attain what is good or best for us.” Aristotle introduces the concept of "eudaimonia." For Aristotle, as on page 118 of MP, Barcalow says what we do and should seek is our own happiness. However, the phrase pursuit of happiness alone does not fully encompass the meaning of "eudaimonia." One can be happy whilst participating in their favourite hobby, however, that happiness is a temporary state.…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When people think about what it takes to be an engineer they typically think of the technical knowledge and know-how an individual must possess. However, the technical knowhow is not he only quality that makes an engineer special, virtues play a major role and can help engineers flourish. Character traits that are important for engineers to possess are virtues of thought as well as virtues of character. These virtues, or excellences, that an engineer must posses in order to succeed are developed through coursework and experience. Virtue ethics was systematized by Aristotle and focused on what kind of person one should be as well as what is considered a good life.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Virtue Test Case

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages

    We are presented with a formidable quandary for Lauren to overcome at her new job. She has to make a rather difficult decision on whether to green-light her company’s product meeting the contracted specifications from a buyer. However she has discovered the products don’t quite meet specifications, with a chance to completely fail under high humidity conditions. Therefore she has to decide to pass and sign off on the new product which will help fulfill her company’s lucrative new contract, or not pass the product, with possible serious negative repercussions for herself and the company. This is the most critical aspect of the dilemma and it must be addressed properly to ensure success for all parties involved.…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    This can easily become self-defeating if the engineer chooses to overlook details of a project because they had been on successful projects that saved countless lives. This would quickly lead to creating subpar devices. Through having humility, an engineer is innately more cautious with the work they do. Through receiving a formal education, one has the ability to develop the intellectual virtue of techne or technical skills.…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics