Ethics involves interaction between ourselves and with the world around us. How we should comport ourselves towards others and our surroundings (Kohák, 2000). For ethics to decide what is a morally just way to be, think, and behave, it is helpful to break up the human experience in to logically defined sections. There are three prominent components of the person studied in ethics which provide insight to how ethical behaviour is devised - character, knowledge, and action. These three ideas can each be associated with three schools of ethics - character with virtue ethics, knowledge with deontology, and acting with utilitarianism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2013). This is a complex and dynamic relationship which ultimately helps …show more content…
Using the language of virtue ethics, character can be seen as the unity or sum of virtue in the person (Hursthouse, 2007) and manifests itself in relationships with others and our surroundings. Virtuous character traits must be learned from a young age or gained through moral training, as opposed to personality traits which can be acquired at will. Regarding this, Hursthouse (2007) states that “You can’t just decide to have a virtue; virtuous character traits cannot be acquired theoretically by attending lectures or reading books or articles and just deciding to be that way. But they can be acquired through moral habituation or training, beginning in childhood and continued through self-improvement.” (p. 164) Hursthouse also clarifies how knowledge applies to character, and can indeed be a way to instil virtue when practised with young children. She does this using a proposed new virtue, that of wonder, and the Aristotelian concept of a being’s telos - the distinctive purpose that defines each being’s fundamental nature (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2013). Hursthouse …show more content…
Acting can be described as behaviour stemming from character and knowledge, and hence, fits in neatly with how ethics was defined by Kohák at the beginning of this essay i.e. how we comport ourselves towards others and our surroundings. In terms of virtue ethics, moral character in addition to practical wisdom (the wherewithal to exercise virtuous behaviour in a meaningful way) will amount to appropriate ethical behaviour or action. Conversely, a morally flawed character with unsound knowledge will result in incorrect
Virtue ethics is an approach that “deemphasizes rules, consequences and particular acts and places the focus on the kind of person who is acting” (Garrett, 2005). A person’s character is the totality of his character traits. Our character traits can be goo...
Ogien defines “character broadly speaking, [as] a certain way of acting or feeling that is consistent, that is, stable over time and unvarying from one situation to the next” (Ogien 123). For Aristotle, “virtue, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean…relative to us, this being determined by…that principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine…and acquired by repetition” (Aristotle 124, 129). Mark Timmons, a moral philosopher, also makes a slight distinction between character and virtue by defining virtue as “(1) a relatively fixed trait of character (2) typically involving dispositions to think, feel, and act in certain ways in certain circumstance, and (3) is a primary basis for judging the overall moral goodness or worth of persons” (Timmons 212). Additionally, bioethicists Tom Beauchamp and James Childress define virtue in terms of “a trait of character that is socially valuable and a moral virtue [as] a trait of character that is morally valuable” (Beauchamp 31). My reason for going through the ways in which different philosophers have defined virtue is to (1) show that Ogien critiques virtue ethics without correctly representing the term virtue in the theory or defining virtue at all and (2) to show that among moral philosophers (at least read for this week) there is commonality in defining virtue in some way or another as a fixed character. (3) Just because a person possesses a certain character trait that does not mean that that person is virtuous and (4) in regard to the Milgram experiments, there is no way to determine the virtuous character of the subjects involved based solely on this one experiment alone. Virtuous character requires consistency of a particular character trait. Virtue is not a one-time act or an act on occasion. From the point-of-view of virtue ethics, we can only “take as a sign of states of character the pleasure or
In, “Liberal Studies and Education,” by Seneca, the path to virtue is through the study of wisdom. The effects of virtue are illustrated through the characteristics of kindness, temperance and loyalty.
Louden opens this section with this statement: “… it is commonplace that virtue theorists focus on good and bad agents rather than on right and wrong acts.” This is a good th...
What is ethics? Ethics are the philosophical principles of good verses bad moral behavior. It is a guideline to help people make decisions or make a judgment calls. There are two main types of ethical principles that will be discussed in this paper, and how they are applied to the decision making process. They are Deontological and Utilitarian. Deontological ethics are based on the righteousness or wrongness of the action-taking place. It does not base itself on the bad or good consequences that come from the action. Immanuel Kant introduced deontological ethics in the 18th century. Kant believed that every decision or action made by a person had to be evaluated by his or her moral duty. He stated that humanity shouldn’t side on its
In this article “On Virtue Ethics”, Rosalind Hursthouse attempts to formulate and defend her moral philosophy of neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics to its rivals utilitarianism and deontology. She is also interested in rebutting claims that virtue ethics cannot give us guidance on what to do in a particular situation because it emphasizes on character formation. She does this by saying that there are claims that virtue ethics cannot be a genuine rival towards utilitarianism and deontology (often referred to as duty ethics), because virtue ethics is “agent-centered” rather than “What sorts of actions should I do?” These claims state that ethical theories should be able to tell us about right actions which utilitarianism and deontology do. However, she fights back by saying that virtue ethics says that right action is an action that is among those available. It is an action that a virtuous human would do characteristically under the circumstances that they are in. She then goes on to say that with virtue ethics the agent is one who has, and exercises, certain character traits which are virtues. This means that virtue is a character trait a human being needs to flourish in life. She compares this with the other two saying that while utilitarianism and deontology introduce consequences and moral rule, virtue ethics does not focus on that and rather focuses on the virtuous agent and the criteria that person follows.
...importance of virtue here is that, virtues are needed for living well; But in order to obtain
A theory of virtues provides explanation on what makes something a virtue and why it is considered one. The theory analyzes historical virtues that are outdated and resonate double standards, it gives reason to why these virtues should be reconsidered and redefined. We need a theory to advise us to reflect on the true meaning of virtues and how they provide us with character traits that we ought to seek and sustain. It is important to understand and acquire virtues, which determines moral traits that ultimately convey happiness in one’s life.
Doaker- A forty seven year old, tall, patient man that has a lot of respect for others. Even though he caves into people he is still a respectable figure.
According to Aristotle, there are two types of virtue. These are: intellectual and moral virtue. Intellectual virtue stems from growth and teaching. In order to be intellectually virtuous one must have a great amount of experience and have allocated a great amount of time in studying whatever task it is they are looking to be virtuous in. On the other hand, moral virtue is given birth through habit. It is not an object that we are just born with it. Moral virtue originates from constant repetition.
In Plato’s Meno, Socrates quotes the poet Theognis, and says: “Eat and drink and sit with the mighty, and make yourself agreeable to them; for from the good you will learn what is good, but if you mix with the bad you will lose the intelligence which you already have.” This section shows that virtue can be obtained by people of good influence. Essentially, the ways of someone and how they act can “rub off” on others. Reading information from books and gaining book knowledge is definitely beneficial, but sometimes it can be better learned through real life experiences. Because virtue is knowledge, it must be learned like all subjects. Socrates gives a scenario of a boy named Cleophantus who was a well-known horseman. His master taught him fantastic things, such as standing upright on horseback and javelin skills. It is like learning a sport or an activity. Someone who is knowledgeable and equipped in the subject is capable of teaching truth. Also meaning someone is able to teach virtue. Someone is capable of learning and teaching virtue if they are equipped to do so. Yet virtue can also be understood, if not better, when in a real life experience. Actions sometimes train our minds better than just common head knowledge. This can really be applied to anything, not just specifically
taught. He begins by looking for teachers of virtue and comes up with four examples.
The character analysis is easily divided into three parts. Each of these is discussed in detail on this handout. Examining the character from these three perspectives will help you write an exemplary essay.
We, as human beings, cannot live without following some rules or guidelines in our lives so that we could be able to act in any situation. Ethics, a set of moral beliefs and principles, is one of the main guidelines that should be followed in life so that we would be able to know the difference between right/wrong and good/bad. The term ‘ethics’ is related to morality because it defines whether an action is considered moral or immoral. It was firstly discussed by Socrates, in one of Plato’s dialogues, by which he argued that a wise person would act based on knowing the right action that is good for him/her, while bad actions can only be done because of ignorance. Unfortunately, in some cases, is very controversial to differentiate between a
Acquiring virtues takes place throughout a person’s whole life so it states there is a need to show that good actions are rewarding and that virtue is learnt through doing and following the example of virtuous role models, e.g. Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela. Whilst this is a strength in itself, what further makes the theory more favourable is the psychological context that can be given to this way of learning virtues. One psychologist Alfred Bandura put forward social learning theory in 1977 as a possible explanation of how we learn from our environment through observation and reinforcement. This can be linked to virtue ethics because it shows that we will watch role models and their behaviour and imitate it, developing a system of virtues that are rewarding which will ultimately lead us to eudaimonia. This gives some form of theoretical evidence to virtue ethics which makes it seem a more realistic way of thinking about goodness and how we must achieve