Does Aristotle's Virtue Ethics: Would You Lie Or Tell The Truth?

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One question that has been asked throughout this semester is if you were hiding Jews and Nazi soldiers came to your door asking if you were hiding Jews, would you lie or tell the truth? Aristotle’s virtue ethics is one lens we can use to look through to help answer this question. Aristotle explains virtue ethics as having to do virtuous things rather than just be virtuous and to do virtuous things you must have some degree of material possessions. I believe that Aristotle’s virtue ethics answer the question above in the best, most logical way. Aristotle’s virtue ethics has a few key points that must be discussed to understand fully how we get to answer the question above. First, a virtue is an excellent use of function of a thing. There are intellectual virtues, such as wisdom and ideas, as well as moral virtues like temperance and honesty. Virtue has a certain structure to it, there is virtue which is where the good is located, and then two vices on either side in which they represent the bad. One vice is called the excess vice and that is where there is too much of the virtue, and the other is the deficiency vice where there is too little of the virtue present. So, for example, if I lie too much I would correct that vice by aiming on the exact opposite end of the spectrum talked about above so that I end up in the middle (the virtue.) One thing virtue ethics depends on is happiness. Aristotle believed that children could not be happy because they have not experienced the same things adults have, he also believes that a fulfilled life is measured after death. Aristotle also talks about something called the Chief Good. The Chief …show more content…

There are a lot of components to it and not all the components are easy to understand. One way this could be fixed is to make it simpler to understand. If it is simpler to understand, it takes less steps, therefore, less time to come to your decision when faced with this

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