VIRTUE ETHICS
EUDAIMONIA
- Aristotle started from the teleological claim that every action is aimed at attaining some good
- some aims are subordinate to higher ends
- this suggests that there is some final and ultimate end to which every action is geared
- The final end is EUDAIMONIA
- For Aristotle, this was not pleasure, honour or wealth
- He worked out how he understood eudomonia through his function argument and examination of virtues
THE FUNCTION ARGUMENT
- Everything has a function
- goodness consists in performing ones function well (e.g knifes goodness lies in its capacity to cut efficiently
- everything living has a soul
- the nature of the soul determines the function e.g plant fulfils its function through taking I food & growing
- The uniqueness of the human soul lies in its capacity for rational though
- reasoning well is how humans attain goodness and that entails exercising virtue dor their entire lives
DOCTRINE OF THE GOLDEN MEAN
- the golden mean helps people to act virtuously
- emotions can be excessive or deficient , so practical wisdom steers a person to the mean between those 2 extremes
- this is where moral virtues lie
- the mean is not a fixed point or rule
- its relative to each individual
- it also takes into account the circumstances
- for instance, the facing an enemy attack, it would not be appropriate for a soldier to respond with restrain, which might be seen as the halfway point between
- in this instance, courage would be shown n spirited defence
- A PHRONIMOS(man of practical wisdom) provides the guide to what the mean is for each individual
- this may be the person concerned, or someone else
VIRTUES
- You must develop virtues through habit
- we must follow the example of virtuous people e.g ghandi or mother theresa
- E.G bravery:
- the vice of deficiency is cowardice
- the vice of excess is foolishness
JUSTICE
- Aristotle listed justice as a virtue
- however it has no excess of deficiency
- its an altruistic virtue
- justice encompasses all other virtues
- 2 types of virtue:
- Intellectual: developed by teaching & education(e.g temperance, courage)
- Moral: cant be taught, come from habit & experience (e.g wisdom, cleverness)
IMPORTANCE OF PROPER INTENTION
- People are acting virtuously id they know what theyre doing
- e.g if someone who jumped into a fast-flowing river to save a drowning child did not know he was in danger of drowning himself, then he is not acting virtuously
- its not possible to be virtuous by accident
- people are also only acing virtuously if their act is a reasoned choice
- e.g if when eating they make a rational decision to refrain from greedy self-indulgence, then they are acting virtiously
- itts not virtuous if the action is motivated by desire or impressing others
- a proper intention is essential to perform a cirtuous action
- this entails thinking about the action and making a choice based on reason