Ethics: Group 2 04 – 10 – 2019

PSY 181

VIRTUE ETHICS

1. With the framework that you have, can the main character’s actions in the
movie be ethically justified? Why or why not?

Virtue ethicists argue that a virtuous person is someone who acts in a virtuous way as
the result of rational thought. I believed that Clyde Shelton was not being rational or wise
before and while executing his revenge. It is true that his family was not given the justice
that they deserved but committing another sin to get the justice that he wants is not a
product of rational thought, and something that a virtuous person wouldn’t do.
(Franchezka Ang)

Virtue ethics is the quest to understand and live a life of moral character. Clyde
Shelton’s action is not ethically justified, because Clyde seeks justice through his own
means and vengeance after the justice system fails him. He killed a lot of people for the
sake of revenge and making the justice system right in inhumane ways. Clyde Shelton
became biased in the movie because he put the justice system into his own hands
knowing that there are people who is responsible for it. Because of his extreme danger
to the person who murdered his wife, and daughter, in the unfair justice system he also
became aggressive and violent wherein even innocent people became a victim in his
inhumane actions. (Joshua Balmes)

Clyde Shelton’s virtue and character turned out to be extreme. He was so angry about
what happened to his family that he acted in such a way that his character brought threat
and death to others. During the ten years of being silent he developed several
technologies and weapons (a virtuous agent wouldn’t do) that were destructive as well as
owning large amount of real estate to make his rebuts. His reappearance with violent and
aggressive actions showed how he spent his life living far from a virtuous person.
(Geraldine Almosera)

If you are virtuous, you are rational, and you know what is right. With that, Clyde
Shelton’s actions don’t show virtue ethics because he brutally killed and revenged to
those people who murdered his family. He makes up a mistake by another mistake. He
made things even worse and it caused so much pain to others, and it cannot be and will
never be ethically justified because if you are a virtuous person, you'll be wise and know
what is right. (Laira Cuello)

The main character’s action in the movie which is Clyde Shelton cannot be ethically
justified for the reasons of; First – he killed a lot of people (the guilty and the innocent)
because of the flawed judicial or justice system that he got for the right justice of his family.
Wherein, if we based it in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, average, or mean, between
excess and deficiency. Basically, he says, the idea of virtue is ''all things in moderation.''
Whereby, striving to live this virtuous life of moderation, human beings can find happiness
and, therefore, can be ethical. Which is opposite to what Clyde Shelton did where he is
in the level of vices of excess. Second – In what Virtue Ethics stated, “Happiness depends
on living in accordance with appropriate virtues.” We can say that Clyde Shelton
happiness is to give the right justice for his family by having requite or revenge to those
people who is/are liable and accountable to be punished but in accordance with
appropriate virtues where (Aristotle defines moral virtue as a disposition to behave in the
right manner). Third – In Virtue Ethics point, “Intention must be attainable.” In the movie,
we can see that Clyde Shelton was almost perfect to attain what he wanted, he’s indeed
an ingenious killer but did he attain his intentions; To fix the broken legal system. Clyde
Shelton prepared all his plans for almost 10 years for him to attain his intention and make
it inflicted within his own hands but failed to aim it. (Angela Macaraeg)

Clyde Shelton’s actions cannot be ethically justified because, base from

understanding the ideology of Virtue Ethics, yes, it is normal to seek justice for what
happened to his late wife and child since their death is a result of the murderer’s
ruthlessness. However, it is not normal to make an action that resulted as a revenge,
especially in violent and brutally way. Moreover, Clyde’s actions is classified as a revenge
instead of delivering justice. Let’s not forget that seeking justice and having a revenge is
never the same. According to Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. (2014) of Psychology Today, there
are 5 key differences between JUSTICE and REVENGE:

1. Revenge is predominantly emotional; justice primarily rational.

o REVENGE is more done with violence due to the result of negative

emotions and there is a pleasure given by seeing the others suffer from
the action given by the person who seeks revenge. On the other hand,
according to Virtue Ethics, JUSTICE is a mean between two extremes
of unfairness.

2. Revenge is, by nature, personal; justice is impersonal, impartial, and

both a social and legal phenomenon.

o REVENGE is a result of personal satisfaction, while JUSTICE is the

moral and ethical for the principles of the society.

3. Revenge is an act of vindictiveness; justice, of vindication.

o (Vindictiveness - is a strong desire to get back at someone. People who

hold grudges and seek revenge are full of vindictiveness.)

o (Vindication - the action of clearing someone of blame or suspicion;

proof that someone or something is right, reasonable, or justified)

4. Revenge is about cycles; justice about closure.

o Cycles – repeating itself.

o Closure – resolution

5. Revenge is about retaliation; justice about restoring balance.

1. The intention of REVENGE is most likely a payback and harm.

2. JUSTICE is bringing about equality – better, equity.

 Humans, according to Aristotle, is a “rational animal”, being a rational means
capable of thinking and reasoning with good intentions, and it must be based from the
facts, and should be reasonable. In line with this, the actions of Clyde Shelton are
considered irrational due to the fact that his capacity for thinking and reasoning are used
in bad and harmful intentions that affected the people ferociously. (Justine Pado)

The main character Clyde Shelton, his actions ended up in an insanely way while
avenging for his wife and daughter’s death. What he did was too much, for he already
had the “justice” that he wanted because he himself killed the killer on his own, yet Clyde
played with Nick, for he wanted him to realize that what he did was wrong, turning justice
into revenge instead. Such actions of Clyde only added up on his emotions, making his
anger undermining his reasons which eventually led on killing innocent people. (Christine
Acierto)

As seen from the movie, Clyde Shelton's bloody revenge against the murderer
(Darby) of his wife and young daughter appears to be psychopathic. Revenge is not a
morally permissible motive for action. In Shelton's case, he commits murder after murder
which shows that he just repeats what the criminals did in a more brutal torture technique,
and this is not considered to be morally good because he violated the law as well. Shelton
is too much violent which is noted as a vice in Aristotle's doctrine of the mean. Virtue
ethics implies that moral virtues concern habitual choices of actions in accordance with
rational principle. At this point, Shelton dedicated himself to make Nick Rice come to
realization about his false way of being and open him to his inner moral voice for he is
more interested in his political advancement than what he knows is right. However, it is
irrational for Clyde Shelton to kill people who had nothing to do with the trial. He firmly
believed that the entire justice system is flawed not acknowledging that what he did is
inadmissible too. (Charisma Elorde)

Virtue requires the right desire and the right reason. If you’re virtuous, you know
what’s right and when to act rightfully. In the case of Clyde, he has the right reason, that
is to seek justice for his murdered family, but failed to obtain the right desire, because he
wants to seek vengeance by killing not only those who killed his family, but also the
assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case against the killers and the whole city
that made it so. Furthermore, it is alright to be angry if its reasonable and proportional,
however, we can say that Clyde Sheldon is a bad-tempered person, being angry at the
wrong things, more than is right and cannot be appeared until they inflict vengeance or
punishment. Indeed, Clyde had his revenge for his family, but it was never enough for
him, bombs begin going off all over the city, killing law enforcement officials, lawyers and
judges, even sending a videotape to Nick Rice’s family showing his slow and gory murder
of Darby which made Nick’s daughter traumatized. (Ricka Septimo)

Killing people whether they died in your hands or not is not ethically moral, because
as an art of God, life is important. Even the reason of killing is reasonable it is still not
ethically moral to kill. Only God can take our lives. (Rosalie Valenzuela)

The actions of Clyde Shelton cannot be ethically justified, because as what

Aristotle said, that humans are “rational animals,” it means that we can distinguish the
rightness and the wrongness of our actions. Clyde killed a lot of people for the sake of
revenge and correcting the wrongs of the justice system along with its wrong process. A
good person is someone who lives virtuously - who possesses and lives the virtues, in
this matter, Clyde became a bad person because of the extreme anger that he felt he is
no longer living virtuously since he is full of wrath, rage and resentment. A virtuous person
is a person who acts virtuously and not in a sinful way. Clyde put the justice system into
his hands by murdering a lot of people and most of them are innocent, this only shows
that the behavior and characteristic of Clyde being aggressive and violent put his action
to be immoral and evil. (Maricar Ygot)

According to virtue ethics the golden mean of your attitude towards others who
offended you is anger, forgiveness and understanding while its vices is revenge and, in
the movie, Clyde Shelton had revenge and put justice in his hands by killing all those
people who are involved in his case not just the killer of his family, but too much of justice
is injustice, what Clyde did to the criminals can be justified but to the others who isn’t the
criminal that he killed cannot be justified. Still, Clyde argued that this people are the
reasons why justice can’t be served to the one who deserves it. (Ella Ranches)

Is Clyde's action justifiable? The answer is NO. Because according to Aristotle, by

honing virtuous habits, people will likely make the right choice when faced with ethical
challenges. But that's not clearly what Clyde Shelton did. If you put it in other sense,
Clyde's action is understandable. He seeks for justice for the death of his family, but they
never gave it to him. That is why he spent the next ten years plotting a revenge against
the people who were involved in the crime, including the prosecutor who was in charged
on that case. But if we are to apply Virtue Ethics, Clyde Shelton’s actions are clearly
unethical and subjectively wrong. He was livid and violent, and on Virtue Ethics being
violent is considered as vice deficiency. Yes, it is only normal for a person to get angry
towards someone who did something evil, but a virtuous person would make a good
choice with good consequences in order to get the justice. In Clyde's case, his action is
not and will never be considered as ethically justified as it resulted in greater harm and
pain and is clearly not something a virtue person would do. (Eya Villacarlos)

2. Identify the character’s actions in the movie, which can be considered

ethically moral and which cannot be considered ethically moral?

CLYDE SHELTON
 Ethically Moral:
- He surrendered peacefully to the police because he knows that there is
a price to pay for what he did.
- He seeks to avenge the death of his wife and daughter.
 Unethical
- He ended up involving innocent people and killing them for the sake
of giving Nick the lesson that he deserves
- He asks for too much and takes advantage of Nick’s current belief in
mind
- He already committed many crimes after another
ARGUMENTS: Why Clyde’s actions is Unethical? According to Virtue Ethics.

1# CLYDE WAS BEING IRRATIONAL

- A Rational being can distinguish the right from wrong, and

Aristotle argued that a virtuous person is a rational being,
therefore Clyde Shelton’s actions is irrational, because he was
being destructive and involved a lot of innocent people.

2# CLYDE WAS NOT ABLE TO LIVE AND ACT MORALLY WELL

- Virtue ethics teaches us that having a set of related virtues will

enable us to live and act morally well. Based on the movie,
Clyde Shelton apparently did not live morally because he did
not abide the virtues, instead he caused harm to people in order
to satisfy his thirst for revenge. Moreover, the true essence of
justice was ignored, rather, Clyde just wants to fulfill his desires
to let those people feel what he had felt during his hardships.
Happiness depends on living in accordance with appropriate
virtue.

3# TOO MUCH JUSTICE IS INJUSTICE

- Clyde put Justice in his hands, and he took justice in an extreme

way that it became a vice, he killed some people who are not
involved in his case.

4# HOW YOU TREAT THOSE WHO OFFEND YOU SHOULD NOT TURN INTO VICES.

- In virtue ethics, your attitude toward offenses of others in

golden mean should be anger, forgiveness and understanding,
 the excess is revenge, grudge and resentment, and Clyde
clearly take revenge on those who offend him.

5# INTENTION MUST BE ATTAINABLE

- The justice system would never be fixed by killing the people

involved or the innocents, and virtue ethics argued that
intention must be attainable therefore, Clyde failed to succeed
his plans means that he didn’t attain or fulfill his intention.

Members:

Christine Ena Joyce Acierto Justine Pado

Geraldine Almosera Ella Mae Ranches

Chezka Ang Ricka Mae Septimo

Joshua Balmes Rosalie Valenzuela

Laira Mikhaela Cuello Andre Nicole Villacarlos

Charisma Elorde Maricar Ygot

Angela Macaraeg