Essay On Virtue Ethics,Virtue Ethics And Aristotle's Theory Of Virtue Ethics
WebVirtue ethics is a normative theory whose foundations were laid by Aristotle. This theory approaches normative ethics in substantially different ways than consequentialist and deontological theories. In this essay, I will contrast and compare virtue ethics to WebOct 5, · Virtue ethics is an ethical theory that places focus on the moral character of an individual who performs a particular action rather than the ethical guidelines WebVirtue ethics has been gaining popularity as an alternative theory to deontologist and etiologist perspective of ethics. Main concerns in the virtue ethics approach are with WebBy definition, virtue ethics is the focus on character and an interest in the individual’s life. A person who follows virtue ethics strives to Virtue Ethics Morality Why Gun Rights WebFeb 6, · The virtue ethics philosophy must, therefore, provide the suggestion on the minimum set of characteristics needed by particular individuals to be useful (Baer, ; ... read more
Get some ideas for your virtue ethics essay! Aristotle holds that virtues originate from actions that human beings perform because one can either be a good or bad person based on actions. In his ethics, Aristotle asserts that whatever activities that human beings do ultimately lead to a good or a bad end. Desire and passion compel human beings to pursue certain activities so that they can achieve certain ends, which determine virtue. If there were no desired ends, human beings would pursue activities in vain. Human beings seek to achieve legitimate ends so that they can obtain happiness in life. Aristotle argues that human actions determine virtues that one achieves and subsequently influence happiness 1. For example, a marriage partner who has experienced an unhappy marriage will struggle extremely hard to achieve a happy life out there with friends.
The movie shows the story of a young woman, Justine, who is so troubled in her marriage because she has no children. Justine is 30 years old and has been unable to conceive because her husband, Phil, is impotent according to the diagnosis of a doctor. Phil is sterile because he has continually abused drugs, which has permanently made him unable to make his wife conceive. Troubled by dying marriage, Justine planned to seek for a man who would make her happy in life by giving her a baby. Luckily, Justine found a young man aged 22, Holden, who was particularly attractive and mysterious 2.
From then, Justine and Holden continued with their secret love affair until when her workmates and friends discovered. Discovery of their secret affair put Justine in a dilemma, as she was already pregnant and did not know what to tell Phil. Justine wanted to save her marriage and at the same time keep the baby by marrying Holden. However, Justine and Phil reconciled and lived happily after that with their daughter. Human actions and activities aimed at attaining excellence, which is a virtue in every aspect of life. According to Aristotle, every art and pursuit aims at attaining good, which is a virtue that all human beings cherish 3.
Synchronized actions focus on achieving one objective or more objectives as ends of excellence. The difference between plants or animals and human being is a rational principle. The rational principle makes human beings have the ability of thinking and acting. Through thoughts, a human being can coordinate actions that determine ethics because actions describe ethics. Actions are imperative in achieving virtues since no one can have virtues by a mere theoretical understanding of what ethics are. Thus, due to diversity and degree of actions, it is extraordinarily complicated to attribute certain actions to specified virtues, making ethics subjective.
The ethics theory further asserts that there are two types of virtues, moral and intellectual virtues; moral virtues emanate from habits while intellectual virtue is an innate characteristic that undergoes a transformation in the course of life due to teaching and experience. Nature gives primary moral virtues, and through perfection by habitual activities, one attains given moral virtues. Since habituation is a process of achieving ethics for one to be excellent in a certain field, one should continually learn and exercise. For example, one becomes a runner by running; likewise, people become good when they do good and bad by doing bad things.
The emphasis here is that actions have a direct relation with virtues for virtues cannot occur without actions. Then, what actions are responsible for certain virtues? Confusingly, the same action produces both a virtue and vice, for instance, in playing as an action, we have both good and bad players. Aristotle argues that virtues exist in a continuum of excess and deficiency of actions, and thus, virtue occurs as an intermediate 4. It, therefore, shows that deficiency or excess of action results in vices while intermediate actions give virtues. For many years, Justine had been in a troubled marriage that was gradually dying since Phil was unable to make her conceive. In pursuit of happiness, Justine thought of the best way of achieving happiness amidst daunting challenges of her marriage that seemed not to end unless she does something about them.
According to Aristotle, actions form the basis of virtue for they determine goodness or badness as unique ends of actions, but since human beings aim at achieving a good end, happiness is then an end of actions 5. Thus, Justine was struggling to achieve happiness in her marriage and life, as well. In her troubles, Justine had three options: to tolerate hard life of marriage, to divorce her husband or to conceive through a love affair. Thus, the option of tolerating fruitless marriage life would have been a deficient action, while the option of divorce would have been an excessive action. The first person used role identity and integrity, and he claimed….
Professional ethics has been an essential topic for engineers to comply to. This concept of professional ethics can be categorized into three varieties: prohibitive ethics, preventive ethics, and virtue ethics. Virtue ethics emphasizes the concept for engineers to promote the qualities of a character and also the quality of life of the people. Home Flashcards Create Flashcards Essays Essay Topics Language and Plagiarism Checks. Essays Essays FlashCards. Sign in. Flashcard Dashboard Essay Dashboard Essay Settings Sign Out. Home Page Virtue Ethics Essay. Virtue Ethics Essay. Decent Essays. Improved Essays. Superior Essays. Great Essays.
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The debate about virtue ethics Main issues Critical analysis of virtue ethics criticism Virtues should be the starting point for ethical theory This paper revolves around the question that whether or not virtues are an appropriate starting point for ethical theory. I have presented the main criticism on virtue ethics theory followed by the defense of this theory by renowned virtue ethicists. There are three main schools of thought that have presented theories regarding ethics. In traditional normative ethical theories, deontologist, etiologist, and virtue ethics are the three perspectives. Virtue ethics has been gaining popularity as an alternative theory to deontologist and etiologist perspective of ethics.
Main concerns in the virtue ethics approach are with the character , personality , environment and reasoning of the individual who acts. The main criticism of virtue ethics theory is that it does not provide action guidance. The criticism has been effectively answered by virtue ethicists such as Rosalind Hurthouse, Bernard Williams, and Christine Swanton. The paper concludes that virtue ethics is a superior theoretical perspective compared to deontologist and etiologist perspectives of ethics. When individual are concerned with moral and ethical dilemmas and of questions pertaining to ethical action, virtue ethics provide a practicable answer to their moral queries.
Are the virtues the proper starting point for ethical theory? How ought I to do? What is the most ethical decision in a given condition? Thus, ethical theory is related to acts and not the qualities of an individual. The teleological theory of ethics means that an individual's act will be judged for its rightness based on the result that the act produces. On the other hand, the deontological ethics signify that morality of an action is based on the adherence of an action to a set of moral rules. The latter is the rule-based ethic. The utilitarian perspective of ethics is that greatest good of number of people should be achieved.
From the aforementioned explanation of basic ethical perspectives, it is clear that virtue may be considered by the classic utilitarian as a derivative category Louden, Virtue ethics is the third approach to normative ethics used by the philosophers. For example, in teleological or consequential ethics murder is morally wrong because it produces negative outcome. For a deontologist, the murder is morally wrong in all circumstances, whether or not it produces negative consequence. However, a virtue ethicist is concerned with the personality of the murderer and what the act of murder tells about the moral character of murderer.
For a casual student of philosophy , there are only two types of ethical perspectives. The first one is the deontologists' perspective of morality, and the other one is the utilitarian perspective. The virtue ethics perspective has been ignored by most of the researchers except Plato and Kant. The main rationale is that Rawals's theory of justice held that there are only two types of ethical perspectives one is the deontologists' and the other is utilitarian. The reason as stated by Rawals was that there are only two concepts, one is being right, and the other is being good.
Those virtues are only derivatives of good and right. Researchers argue that virtue ethics does not provide an action oriented solution to the moral dilemmas. The issue gets far complex when it is alleged that virtue ethics perspective requires a detailed decision procedure. It is said that, in each case of virtue ethics it is required to determine that whether a morally right or wrong thing has taken The absence of action guidance in virtue ethics is partly due utilitarian professors being critical of a virtue ethics perspective. In virtue ethics researchers are concerned with being or personality of the agent rather than action of that agent.
Another criticism is that virtue ethics theory does not provide enough impetus for a person to formulate his actions according the moral standards. The criticism also stated that rather than being action centered, the theory of virtue ethics was the only agent centered. Driver also mentioned that Robert Louden is the famous writer and critique of virtue ethics theory. Louden also questioned the practicality of virtue ethics. Since virtue ethics do not provide a standardized set of rules on which an individual or agent should base its actions, the theory was stated as being impractical Louden Gary Watson is another researcher who tirelessly critiqued the application of virtue ethics due to the theory's lacking of action-guidance.
A main issue with the virtue ethics theory is that more often than not the researchers have not well understood the position of Aristotle in describing the virtue. Swanton 8 has somewhat adopted the Aristotle's perspective regarding virtues. Swanton explains that a virtuous person has the practical wisdom. This is exactly the view as propagated by Aristotle. Thus, Swanton describes virtue as a state of appropriate responsiveness to the demands on the world. Virtue and vice may not be well explained in the thesis developed by Aristotle, but contemporary researchers such as Swanton try to address the issues by highlighting this drawback.
The author argued that here are several rules employing the virtue and vice terminology. For instance, Hursthouse 90 said that doing something honest and not doing something dishonest has clear use of virtue and vice. The vocabulary of virtue and vice is rich and utilitarian researchers make use of these terms. Within the virtue ethics literature, there is a connection between the theoretical concept of moral action and a virtuous motivation behind such an action. It is also pertinent to mention that some researchers have criticized the notion that ethical theory's main purpose should be providing action guidance. Researchers have termed action guidance as the secondary subject in a moral theory Zagzebski Therefore, the main aim should be determining a moral exemplar agent.
The same author also argues people associate with people and admire them based on the virtues that the admirable people practice. For a moral theorist, the main question should not that what ought to be done? Rather the investigation should revolve around the question that what is, right? Another criticism is that virtue ethics theory does not provide action guidance or is responsible for lack of action on the part of the agent. This is also contested by Zagzebski. The author describes a long list of virtuous actions of admirable people as a proof that virtue ethicists do not procrastinate finding the correct or moral action path. Hursthouse has been particularly critical of the researchers who attacked the virtue ethics theory on the basis of lack of applicability.
He said that it was the intelligentsia's failure and not that of the theory in itself. Hursthouse defined the right action in terms of virtue Driver, Let us consider the definition provided by Hursthouse 28 in which the author described right action "as it is what a virtuous agent would be characteristically doing in circumstances" Hursthouse Thus, Hursthouse clearly identified the 'v' rules such as being honest, being kind, and so on and so forth. Another advantage of the explanation that Hursthouse provided was that even a non-virtuous person was destined to perform a virtuous action. The other criticism not explicitly mentioned in the issues section is that in case a mother is compelled to kill one of her child to save the other child, virtue ethics does not guide use as to what action the mother ought to take.
This criticism is rejected by Driver in which the author said that such a condition is truly a tragic one. These circumstances are horrific one but are not faced by individuals on a regular basis. Driver also attacked the deontological theory by stating that in a given condition, there might not be any one right action that should be performed. For instance, when a mother is faced with the dilemma of buying a gift for her child, there may more than one right option and action that she can take. Thus, Driver argued that theories other than virtue ethical theories are reductionist in their nature and style.
Virtue ethics theory…. Works Cited Armstrong, Alan E. Driver, Julia. Blackwell, Hursthouse, Rosalind. On Virtue Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Virtue Ethics: The Good and the Bad About Virtue Ethics The philosophy of virtue ethics holds that being a 'good person' or what one might call 'character' is the most important determinant of moral action. Virtue ethics is considered to be one of the major philosophical orientations in the field of normative ethics, along with consequentialism and deontology Hursthouse Many consider it to be the oldest form of ethics, harkening.
Virtue Ethics Virtue-based vs. duty-based ethics: arguments and examples from Victor Hugo, Aristotle, Bernard Mayo, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and William Frankena In the study of ethics and morality, there have been theoretical foundations in which it was argued that morality comes with being rather than doing, or that a true moral life is one that is a product of doing instead of being. Or, oftentimes, theoreticians and philosophers contend that morality must bear. Virtue Ethics and reasoning for the scenario Virtue ethics is the ethical strategy preferred. Efficient leaders and true professionals strive at achieving moral excellence which encompasses integrity, justice, valor and good sense.
In the present day, virtue ethics constitutes one among the three key normative ethics strategies. This will allow someone to move beyond the different emotions, so that they can be able to see how the different actions will affect the world around them. Despite some of the obvious weaknesses, you can be able to determine the most appropriate course of action, by asking questions and gaining more information. Once this achieved, you will have a greater sense of enlightenment, because you were able to. The question here arises, why did we have to return to ancient philosophy of virtue ethics? But interestingly while a great deal of credit is given to Aristotle and Plato, the modern moral philosophers such as Anscombe, Foot, Murdoch, Slote had mentioned in very precise terms the problems they found in Aristotelian ethics.
They must have absorbed the writings of ancient philosophers since a lot is said about the moral. Deontological ethics are based on other theories that focus on duty and obligation. Immanuel Kant argued that an individual should "always act in such a way that you can also will that the maxim of your action become universal law" p. It can be argued that Kant's arguments are echoed in a quote often attributed to Ghandi, "Be the change you want to see in the world". Home Writing Tools Example Essays About us FAQs Our Blog Citation Generator Flash Card Generator Login SignUp.
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WebVirtue ethics has been gaining popularity as an alternative theory to deontologist and etiologist perspective of ethics. Main concerns in the virtue ethics approach are with WebVirtue ethics is a normative theory whose foundations were laid by Aristotle. This theory approaches normative ethics in substantially different ways than consequentialist and deontological theories. In this essay, I will contrast and compare virtue ethics to WebBy definition, virtue ethics is the focus on character and an interest in the individual’s life. A person who follows virtue ethics strives to Virtue Ethics Morality Why Gun Rights WebVirtue ethics is a theory used to make moral decisions. It does not rely on religion, society or culture; it only depends on the individuals themselves. The main philosopher of Virtue WebOct 5, · Virtue ethics is an ethical theory that places focus on the moral character of an individual who performs a particular action rather than the ethical guidelines WebFeb 6, · The virtue ethics philosophy must, therefore, provide the suggestion on the minimum set of characteristics needed by particular individuals to be useful (Baer, ; ... read more
Virtue Ethics And Virtue Essay. Concludes that virtues can promote a sense of balance and discuss the problem it may have. Virtue ethics is a very different approach to the others and central to Aristotle's work. Reviewing these ideals of what characteristics a person should posses would or could be considered common traits of most individuals in the world today. Morality Ethics Virtue.
Virtue ethics has been gaining popularity virtue ethics essay an alternative theory to deontologist and etiologist perspective of ethics. A virtuous person is considered to be a morally good person, virtue ethics essay, and virtues are good traits. Thus, ethical theory is related to acts and not the qualities of an individual. We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. Aristotle argues that virtues exist in a continuum of excess and deficiency of actions, and thus, virtue occurs as an intermediate 4. In thinking about the Virtue Theory, it can be explained by stating that each person needs to be the best they can and avoid the need or ability to hurt others. Virtue ethics essay that some virtue theories enjoy attractiveness due to a misunderstanding of rival moral theories.
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