Virtue ethics IA

Virtue ethics is currently one of three major approaches in normative ethics. It may, initially, be identified as the one that emphasizes the virtues, or moral character, in contrast to the approach which emphasizes duties or rules (deontology) or that which emphasizes the consequences of actions (consequentialism). Suppose it is obvious that someone in need should be helped. A utilitarian will point to the fact that the consequences of doing so will maximize well-being, a deontologist to the fact that, in doing so the agent will be acting in accordance with a moral rule such as “Do unto others as you would be done by” and a virtue ethicist to the fact that helping the person would be charitable or benevolent. A modern day virtue ethicist virtue Alastair Macintyre points out that different virtues have been prized by different societies, and at different points in history. Virtue Ethics is therefore a morally relativist, non-cognitive theory.
The above is a condensed introduction to what virtue ethics really entails, but like all the philosophical theories we come across there are many advantages as well as equally as many valid disadvantages. I would like to focus on a few of these in the following article. I, as a person with virtues find it only appropriate to start this article off on a negative note as and then finally to sum it up in a positive manner as I believe, for many different personal reasons that it is my duty to make the reader have a pleasant reading experience. This is where one of the main problems of virtue ethics arises, that being the fact that in virtue ethics a lot of emphasis is given to emotions and feelings and it does not address the questions of “how should I act” etc. but rather ask the questions of “...

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...we should be doing as it focuses solely on the person we should be instead. It understands the need to distinguish good people from legalists. (For example: Just because an individual obeys the law and follows all the rules does not automatically make him a good person). It has a very simple and yet effective message, which is that we should, due to our own personal reasons want to be virtuous. This is will, as a result allow us to focus on finding a solution as oppose to waiting for a ethical theory to find an answer to our problems.

When applying it to our daily lives we see that we are more likely to deem a person ‘good’ or ‘generous’ if they spared their time to go and work with displaced people from war struck regions of the world out of compassion and the need to give back to the society, as oppose to those who go only because they feel it is their duty.