Philosophy Ch7

The Golden Mean:

+For Aristotle, the Golden Mean expresses a funamental truth: the virtuous and happy life is a life of moderation in all things. -Moral virtues occupy what Aristotle calls the "Golden Mean" a balance between two extremes. -A moral virtue such as courage, for example is the midpoint between the extremes of recklessness on one side and cowardice on the other.

Aristotle's ethics

+The greatest good for humans, their true goal, is eudaimonia, which means, "happiness," and "flourishing." -His ethics consists not in following moral rules that stipulate right actions, but in striving to be a particular kind of person. -For Aristotle, every living thing has an end toward which it naturally aims, the thing that represents its greatest good.

The Usefullness of Virtue Ethics:

According to virtue ethics, when faced with a moral dilemma, we should do what a virtuous person would do. But how do we determine this? The right action is the one performed by the virtuous person, and the virtuous person is the one who performs the virtuous action. But this is circular reasoning.

Acquiring Moral Virtues

Aristotle believes that, while intellectual virtues can be taught, moral virtues come about only as a result of habitual practice. Just as a person becomes a building by building things, or a musician by playing music, so, Astrotle says, we acquire individual moral virtues by consistently doing moral acts.

Both consequentialist and nonconsequentialist moral theories are concerned with

an action, and attempt to answer the question, "What should I do?"

Virtue Ethics

attempts to answer the question, "What should I be?"

The main critique of virtue ethics centers on the last criterion,

the usefulness of the theory in moral problem solving.

Moral Virtues:

Fairness Benevolence Honesty Loyalty Conscientiousness Courage

Another problem is the possible conflict of virtues in a particular context.

Loyalty, for example, may conflict with honesty when the fate of a friend is on the line and your testimony will make the difference between life and death for him. How do you choose between being loyal and being honest in this case?

Modern Virtue Ethics

The cultivation of virtues is a way to ensure human flourishing and a good life. A full-blown ethics must take into account motives, feelings, intentions, and moral wisdom. Acting only out of duty is a barren and one-dimensional approach to living a virtuous life.

Virtues

To Aristotle, a virtue is a stable dispoition to act and feel according to some ideal or model of excellence. It is deeply embedded character trait that can affect actions in countless situations. Aristotle distinguishes between intellectual and moral virtues.

Evaluating Virtue Ethics:

Virtue ethics seems to meet the minimum requirements of coherence. It also seems consistent with our considered moral jugements and with our moral experience.

Intellectual Virtues:

Wisdom Prudence Rationality

Regardless of its value as a stand-alone theory of ethics, virtue ethics forces us to

be aware of the importance of character and motivation in a principles-based ethics.