Virtue ethics

If I were a virtue ethicist my actions wouldn’t necessarily be out of decision. Making a decision may lead to an obligation or duty, as a virtue ethicist I have no obligation to perform a good, or just actions. As Aristotle states, “He seeks and choses the mean, not the absolute mean, but the mean considered relevant to ourselves.” Meaning that I’d simply act out of habit and choose the mean between deficiency and excess. An example would be if I were given the opportunity to help someone on a…

Virtue ethics analyzes the general characteristics of the individual and whether or not the action is moral. Virtue ethics, for example, emphasizes both benevolence as well as honesty, and if one could argue that the NFL players kneeling during the anthem indicates benevolent and honest traits, then the action would be considered ethical according to virtue ethics. However, it is unclear whether the actions by the players are purely motivated by the desire to help others. Other motivations, for…

In Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, he searched for the answers to questions about life such as: “How should we live?” and “What would be a good human life?” He postulated the highest good in life to be happiness, otherwise known as Eudaimonia. Eudaimonia can be defined as a rational activity coalescing with arête (a virtue of character). Aristotle concluded that a good human life must be worked at, and would consist of someone achieving Eudaimonia coupled with the practice of temperance and…

theories that shed light on how we should approach certain situations and how to go about our lives. The ones we have gone over are ethical egoism, utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics. While they make interesting points, they have several holes that makes them illogical to use in reality, except of course, virtue ethics. A philosopher by the name of Aristotle argued that instead of trying to find out what is the right thing to do in a specific situation, you must ask oneself what type…

Nichomachean Ethics. In that work, he expounds upon how to become an ethical human being through sequentially more specific ideas such as aiming for happiness, moderation in virtues, and high mindedness. In the opening sections of the excerpt, Aristotle demonstrates that the overarching way to become ethical is through being good, happy, and reasonable. He first claims that every art strives to aim to be good, and that the sake of mastering an art is what people aim for.…

like Aristotle and Aquinas spoke highly of virtue ethics and each developed their own theories on the topic. Although both philosophers wrote about virtue ethics, their approach was quite different. So, what is virtue ethics? According to Lewis Vaughn it is “a moral theory that focuses on the development of virtuous character”(Vaughn 808). Although both Aquinas and Aristotle had different approaches to virtue ethics, there was a consensus on what virtue ethics ultimately is. In terms of both…

of ethics that tell us how we should make decisions. The philosophy is branch out into 3 different perspective, teleological e.g. utilitarianism which emphasises the consequences of actions, deontological e.g. Kantian ethics, justice ethics emphasising duties or rules and last but not least, virtue ethics that emphasises the moral character. Although these theories are commonly used, it is debatable whether it still exist in the modern organisations. From this essay, I will argue that virtue…

Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics, Mill’s Utilitarianism, and Kant’s Deontological Ethics. In their theories, each thought they had found the answer to finding the truth. Each theory has a hole in it that made others speculate it’s truth. I believe every theory brings an important piece to the puzzle. One theory alone cannot bring the truth. In this paper I will argue that one must take some truth from each theory in order to help find the ultimate truth. Aristotle’s theory is based on virtues. He…

People have been fighting over the ethic of abortion in the past several decades. Different philosophical approaches have their own explanations. In this paper I shall defend one of Peter Singer’s consequentialism argument for abortion that it’s not wrong to kill a potential human being. Then, offer a deontological reply from Don Marquis’ point of view that killing is wrong because it deprives victims’ future life. Lastly, show how Rosalind Hursthouse using virtue ethics approach avoids the…

Introduction The concept of ethics has been, and still is, the basis of life and people have been trying to set a standard that would clearly distinguish right from wrong. Ethics is often a concept with blurred lines and an action is seldom simply categorized u under right or wrong. Throughout the years, many philosophers had come up with several ideas of ethical guidelines, including Utilitarianism, Kant’s Moral Theory, Virtue Ethics, and Moral Pluralism. As human cultures continued to evolve,…