Ethics: An Analysis Of Virtue Ethical System

The ethical system I have chosen is Virtue Ethics. Virtue ethics is a common term for an approach that lay emphasis on the role of character and quality in moral philosophy rather than one doing one’s duty or acting in order to bring good consequences. Most virtue ethics theories are inspired by Aristotle who stated that a virtuous individual is somebody who has ideal character qualities. These qualities come from natural internal tendencies, but need to be cultivated and once established they will become stable. For example, a virtuous individual is somebody who is caring across many situations over a lifespan because that’s the individual’s character and not because the individual wants to maximize utility or gain favors or simply do the

While deontological, teleological are considered action-based theories of ethics because they emphasis entirely upon on the action which an Individual performs. When actions are tried ethically right based upon their consequences, we have a teleological ethical theory. When actions are tried ethically right based upon how well they obey to some set of duties, we have a deontological ethical theory. While these first two ethical systems focus on the question like what should I do? Virtue ethics asks a completely different question like what sort of person should I be? This question doesn't judge as right or wrong but looks at the character of the individual doing the actions. The individual in turn makes moral judgment based upon what action would make one a moral individual or a good individual. Virtue ethics theories place less importance on which rules individuals must follow and instead focuses on helping people develop good character qualities, such as kindness and generosity. These qualities allow a person to make the right decisions later on in

While many common ethical choices may certainly come more easily to a person with the right moral character, the fact is that many moral problems involve a great deal of careful reasoning and thinking. Just having the right character will not be enough to make the right decision. Aristotle states that we must decide what a virtuous act or individual is by modeling ourselves after a perfect virtuous person. However how do we determine who and what that paradigmatic person is? We can probably name at least one ideal person we feel we ought to imitate, but we would come up with a lot of different ones because of our own backgrounds, experiences, and desires. So how would we know that we have come up with truly virtuous ideal individual? We have all held public figures as role models for kids or even ourselves however the past has shown that many of our so-called idols have not always acted virtuously as we have come to believe. Look at the number of Prime Ministers who have not been so perfect in their private and/or their public lives. Sure many have may have done some good for the country and the people in it; however that may not necessarily fit any form of the "ideal virtuous person." Virtue ethics does not provide us with clear direction on how we must act. There are no clear principles for guiding our actions other than just “act as a virtuous person would act given the situation.” I