The Application Of Virtue Ethics And Aristotle's Virtue Ethics

Virtue ethics, which was systematized by Aristotle, helps define what it means to have a good life and what kind of person you should be in your life. Virtue ethics says that although you can work to develop traits, you must achieve your full potential in order to lead a virtuous life. While virtues have applications throughout your daily life and in many different professions, they are particularly relevant in engineering. Successful engineers need to reflect many different virtues in their actions, including being intelligent and hardworking. This paper defines Aristotle’s virtue ethics and how it is specifically applicable to engineers.

Aristotle’s virtue ethics is character based and centers around the three key principles: arête (virtue),

Virtues of thought are about achieving wisdom, knowledge, and reasoning. He believed that virtues can be gained through practice. Our character traits are grown throughout your life and as you gain experience. It is possible to work on your skills as you work to achieve your full potential. At the same time, virtues of character also should be at a mean state— finding the right balance by not having too much or being too deficient in a certain trait. All virtues center around the four moral or cardinal virtues: prudence, temperance, courage, and justice. Prudence is the virtue of determining the right goal or end. Temperance is the virtue of self-control while courage is the ability to overcome fear. Justice is about fairness and making sure everyone is given what they are rightfully due.

There are many virtues are relevant to engineers, including intelligence, decisiveness, hard work, carefulness, and being a team player. Virtues require practice, and it is important that engineers continue to grow throughout their careers and while they are in school. While we may have not explicitly defined what it means to be a virtuous person until the final year of school, we have unknowingly started to develop our virtues and traits throughout our time in

Industrial engineers, for example, need to have a passion for improvement. Industrial engineering is about optimizing processes and finding ways to eliminate practices that are non-value added. As an industrial engineer, you must be able to think critically and be resourceful. It takes persistence and patience to determine the best way to fix a problem. The answer to many engineering problems only comes after extensive investigation and trial and error. Industrial engineers have to continuously verify and validate many different models and simulations to improve a system. A good industrial engineer is able to use their passion for improvement to continuously question how they can make things