Ethics assignment

1. Moral theory chosen- Virtual morality theory

Virtual ethics(aretaic ethics)-centers in the heart or personality of the agent.

Action based ethics- emphasize on doing Virtual ethics - emphasize on being- however, he will manifest
(show) his being in his action or nonactions

Traditional duty based ethics-’What should I do?’

Virtual ethics-’What sort of person should I become?- spontaneous goodness, serve as example to
inspires others

Final

Self sufficient- make life desirable and wanting nothing at all - happiness

Function of man apart from the functions of eyes, ears legs etc together?not life, not sensation but
rational- obedient to reason; possessing and exercing reason and intelligence

-function of man as a kind of life, as an activity of the soul or a course of action in accordance with
reason. Good of man is activity of soul in accordance with virtue, or the best virtue and most complete v

Moral virtues can best be acquired by practice and habit. A right attitude toward pleasure and pains. A
good man chooses to do what is noble and right for its own sake. What is right in matters of moral
conduct is usually a mean between two extremes.

Intellecutual virtue-teaching

Moral virtue – outcome of habit, not implanted by nature, as nothing in nature can be changed by habit.
We do not get them by making use of them. But doing brave act that we become brave.

Virtue is the same, it is by our actions in dealings between man and man that we become either just or
unjust. It is by our actions in the face of danger and by our training ourselves to fear or to courage that
we become either cowardly or courageous.

Moral states are the results of activities like the state themselves. It is our duty therefore to keep a
certain character in our activities,since our moral state depend on the differences in our activities. So it
is important in training habit of children.

Good builders and bad builders are builders because they built. The case of virtues is the same. It is by
our actions in dealings between man and man that we become either just or unjust. Moral states are the
results of activities like the states themselves. It is our duty therefore to keep a certain character in our
activities , since our moral states depend on the differences in our activities 322

The object of our inquiry is not to know what virtue is but how to become good- right way of performing
actions. Should act in accordance with right reason- it cannot be scientifically exact. Lay down principle
that the kind of reasoning demanded, the subject matters allows, and questions of conduct and
expediency no more admit of hard and fast rules than uestions of health. General reasoning of ethics do
not fall under any art or law but the actors themselves 322

Deficiency and excess are fatal just like gymnastic exercise to strength.eg. persons afraid everything is
coward, person do not afraid anything becomes foolish.

Abstaining from pleasure become temperate, when become temperature best able to abstain from
pleasure.

Pleasure or pain – best test of a person’s moral state. Abstain from pleasure and feels pleasure is
temperature, feel pain is licentious.feel pleasure and pain at the right objects is true education. 323

Doer at the time of performing virtue must satisfy certain conditions-he must know what he is doing, he
must deliberate choose to do it, he must do it as part of his own firm and immutable character.A just
and temperate person is not merely do just deeds but one who does them in the spirit of the just and
the temperate.

Soul consists of – emotions(desire, anger, fear, pride, envy, joy, love, hatred, regret,ambition, pity).
Faculties(capable of experience these emotions), moral states(well or ill disposed in our emotions)-
virtue must be one of the three. Virtues are not emotions – virtues or vices. We are not praised or
blamed for our emotion but we are praised or blamed for our vitures or vices.Nature give us faculties
(the capabability to experience emotion), nature does not make us good or bad. Since virtues is not
emotion, not faculties, they must be moral states.325

Character of that moral state-virtue. The excellence in the eye makes the eye good and its function
good, by excellence, the eye can see well. Virtue or excellence of a man will be such a moral state as
makes a man good and able to perform his proper function well. Deficiency or excess is fatal to
excellence (eg. you can take anthying from it or add anything from it if it is good)

Virtue is a kind of mean because it aims at the mean. For good is simple, evil manifold.

Virtue is a state of deliberate moral purpose, consisting in a mean relative to ourselves, the mean being
determined by reason, or as a prudent man would determine. A mean lying between two vices, the vice
of excee and vice of deficiency. But some are always sinful, no mean – adultery,not a way of doing it
right.
3 depsoitions – two being vices- excess and deficiency, one virtue-mean between them. Extremes
always oppose to the mean. There is agreat oppoisition between 2 extremes than between the mean
and the extreme.

Moral virtue is a mean. It is so hard to find the mean, it is so hard to be good. If it is that hard, choose
the second level, lesser of the two evils.

Alasdair Macintyre-The virtues

Major account of virtues in history-Homer, Aristotle, new testament- core concept of virtue common to
all

Virtues arise from and are defined by a coherent social practice, which in turn is derived from a
particular cultural tradition.

A virtue- an acquired human quality the possession and exercise of whch tends to enable us to achieve
those goods which are internal to practices and the lack of which effectively prevents us from achieving
any such goods.

Virtues are relative to traditions 345

Bernard Mayo- Virtue and the Moral Life 346

JOUrmson- Saints and Heroes

Moral philosophers- 3 types of actions of moral worth

-duty, obligatory ought to perform

-right in so far as they are permissible from a moral standpoint and not ruled out by moral
consideration, but not morally required of us

-wrong, ought not to do

These classifications far from sufficient, there are two mjore classes

Saint and heroes

Saint-would do beyond limits of his duty most people would not do by self control or without self
control- resistance to self desire

Hero-fear, terror would make most people not do it- resistance to fear

William K Frankena – a critizue of virtue based ethical systems

Morality has been concerned about the cultivation of certain disposition or traits among which are
“virtues.” Virtues are dispoistiion not wholly innate.

Virtue just talk of virtuous but not obligations and duty.

Virtual ethicist do not take denontic judgement or principles but just claim” that was a courageous deed.
They claim denontic judgement is derived from such aretic judgement and is secondary.

There are 3 kinds of ethicks of virtue and they correspond to three kinds of ethicks of duty cover

He quires: what dispositions are traits are moral virtues? Trait-egoism- most conducive to one’s own
good, trait-utilitarism- promote general good, trait deontological –

A virtue is not a principle,it isjust a disposition . it is different between the principle of equal treatment
with the disposition to treat people eqally.

ON BEING AND DOING

All usual virtues (love, courage, temperance, honesty, gratitude, considerateness) can be derived from
benevolence and justice, otherwise they are either not a moral virtue (faith, hope , wisdom – not moral
but religious and intellectual) or not a virtue at all –(wrong assumption) 381

A principle of morality must be through the development of disposition to act in accordance with its
principle but not only conformity to rules. Eg. hating involves being disposed to kill or harm, being just
involves tending to do just acts when the occasion calls. It is hard to see how we could know what traits
to encourage or inculculate if we did not subscribe to principles, for example, to the principle of utility,or
to those of benevolence andjustice. Therefore morality of duty and principles and the morality of virtues
are complementary aspects of same morality, then for every principle there will be a morally good trait
often going by the same name, consist of a disposition or tendency to act according to it, for every good
trait…principles without trait are impotent and traits without principles are blind…. Principles are basic

(382)

In ethics of virtue, on the other hand the virtual play a dual role- they must not only move us to do what
we do(virtual ethics), they must tell us what to do(principle, deontological).

384

ON MORAL IDEALS
Some ideals are not moral eg. chivalry. Achilles, Hercules, napoleon and prince charming – ideals they
represent may not be moral ones.

When one has moral ideals – one has something to guide him in living eg. a good man doing good
always does his duty from one’s rule and principles of duty.

Therefore if it is a moral one, there will be nothing in it that is not covered by the principles of
beneficence and justice conceived as princiles of what weought to do in a wider sense 385

Other are second order qualities rather than virtues – ability to make moral decisions and to revise one’s
principles if necessary, ability to realize the inner lives of others. 386

TWO QUESTIONS- whether an action is to be judged right or worng because of its result because of the
principle it exemplies OR because the motive, intention, or trait of character involved is morally good or
bad.

A man and his actions are morally good if it is at least true that, whatever his actual motives in acting
are, his sense of duty or desire to do the right is so strong in him that it would keep him try to do his
duty anyway.

DESPOSITIONS TO BE CULTIVATED

All virtues are correspond to corrolaries of principle of benevolence and justice to be cardinal,these are
first order, other second order. Eg. Conscientiousness, courage second order. Two more second order –
disposition to find out and respect the relevant facts; disposition to think clearly

Writing assignment

I. The chosen moral ethical theory: Virtual ethical theory..

If there is only 1 perosn living on earth, whether he is right or wrong in his act only relates to his survival.
There is no moral value in it. If there are more than two persons, what he does will carry a moral value,
he will be judged by himself or the other whether he does it morally right or morally
wrong(Hobbs)..Human beings throughout history strive to find a way to do things morally right.
Philosophers, ancient as Plato and contemporary as Poygman, suggest solutions or directions to
solutions to this problem. The utilitarianists the criteria of matching the act to the maximum benefit of
most people (Bernard) The Ethical egoist claims only self benefit is the best judge for morally right act.
(xxxx). The deontological advocates will ask people to focus on the act itself and the motive of the
person doing the act.( ). All these discussions try to give a person an objective standard so that one can
use to measure whether his act is morally right. However it is not difficult to see such objective criteria
will be greatly influenced by the social as well as the cultural( Alasdair Macintyre 345)situations of the
person making the judgement difficult. Among these moral theories, the virtual ethicists are different
from other theories. The virtual ethicists claims in every human population groups, there exist a value
system recognized by nearly all people in that group. Such value systems are called virtues. A virtual
peron will do the morally right act automatically without matching his act to any standard. People
around him will recognize his morally right act. The virtual ethics theory differs from other in two
aspects: it focus on the person doing the act, a virtual person will do morally right things (good things)
spontaneously. Virtues will grows with the culture and the social situation of the communities. Persons
who attain the highest qualities of such virtues are called saints or heros whose acts are recognized as
morally right by people.

Virtual ethics claims that in order to do things morally right, a person should become a person with
virtues. They will not focus on the question asked by action-based ethicist “what should I do”, but
instead they will focus on the question “what sort of persons should I become”. Virtues are moral
excellence. They are values recognized by every generation, such as justice, courage, honesty, bravery
among others. For example , for a general moralist, he would say “ I would do brave act to make it
morally right”, but a virtual ethicist would say “ I would become a brave man what I do will be morally
right”. Just like Jesus, Mother Teresa, they would not measure what they did according an objective
standard, they just did what they did and people would recognize they did morally right.

“A virtue is an acquired human quality the possession and exercise of whch tends to enable us to
achieve those goods which are internal to practices and the lack of which effectively prevents us from
achieving any such goods”. (Alasdair Macintyre)

“..morality is internal. The moral law.. has to be expressed in the form,”be this” not in the form “do
this”…..The only mode of stating the moral law must be a rule of character” (Leslie Stephen 380)

Virtues are moral excellence with reason.() They provide the self-sufficient and final goal for everyone to
strive for and gain happiness, that is, to do morally right things.Everyone in a society understands what
are virtues (the good) and vices (the bad)) For example, courage, justice, bravery are virtues and
aldutery and murder are vices. Therefore doing just things may not make a person just but a just person
will do just things.(Aristotle)

Virtues are not innate abilities. Persons are not born with virtues or born without virtues. Virtues
include intellectual virtue and moral virtues. Intellectual virtue is mainly through teaching and moral
virtue is the outcome of habit (Bk II ch 1 321).We are a virtual person became we practice virtue just as
we become builders by building houses. In other words, everyone can become a virtual person by
practicing more and more virtual acts. Once one acquires the virtue, he will act in a virtual way. Just like
a brave person will do brave things as a good builder will build good houses. A person with virtues will
spontaneously do things morally right.(Aristotle)

Whenever one wants to engage in moral acts, one should be careful of the two extreme of the virtue.
Too much or too less will render the virtue non-virtue. Too much courage is foolish and too less of
courage is coward. Both foolishness and cowardness are not virtues. Only courage is, no excess and no
deficiency(Aristotle)

Therefore virtues are the means of two extremes: no more, no less. Therefore, there are three
dispositions, two being vices , namely excess and deficiency and one virtue, which is the mean btween
them (Plato Bk II ch 7 327). It is this mean one need strive to arrive at.

The best way to check the level of attainment of virtues is through pleasure or pain when doing the act.
(Plato 324) If one feels pleasure in doing the act, he is comfortable or feeling happy in doing it or he will
naturally doing it. On the other hand, if one feels pain in doing an act, he would try to refrain from doing
it even though he still may be able to do it. For example, If one feels pleasure in risking his live to help
others, he would be a brave man and he acquires the virtue of bravery. However, if one feels pain in
risking his life to help others, he may still force himself to do it but he did not acquire the virtue of
bravery. (Aristotle)

To further examine whether a person has a virtues, he has to satisfy certain conditions. Firstly, he must
know what he is doing; secondly, he must deliberately choose to do it for its own sake and thirdly , he
must do it as part of his own firm and immutable character (Plato 324). These would also serve as a
good guideline for practicing virtual acts. Therefore, a person with virtues will do spontaneously good.
(Aristotle)

In history, Homer, Aristotle, Jesus are persons of virtues. They held core values of virtues and were
recognized by the people around that. Virtues arise from and are defined by a coherent social practice,
which in turn is derived from a particular cultural tradition. Virtues are relevant to respective cultures
and virtues are relative to traditions (Alasdair Macintyre)

Virtual ethics were demonstrated by saints and hero in history. They showed living examples, not rigid
rules. One can learn ethics by learning at the lives of such people than learning a set of principles. Telling
the truth is not a fulfillment of duty but is a quality of character. A person with virtues will act
spontaneously in a morally right direction. (Bernard Mayo)

II. The Dilemma

A man who loves his wife and he loves his mother. He would risk his life to save them should
they face any danger. One day, the man brought his wife and his mother to enjoy a cruise
trip to Carribean. When the cruise ship reached the middle of the ocean, they went to the
deck to enjoy the beautiful scenery. His wife went to the left side and his mother went to
the right. There were no other persons on the deck Suddenly there was a strong wave came
the shook the ship violently. Both his wife and his mother were thrown overboard into the
ocean. The man could rush to the rim and got on the life boat to the ocean to save whoever
went down. But he could only go to one side for such an endeavor. In other words, he could
 only save one person. What should he do? Going to left to save his wife or going to the right
to save his mother? Which one is a morally right act for him to do at the moment?

No one would disagree that saving life is morally right. But at the same time, everyone
would agree that not saving one’s life was morally wrong. The man could only do one of
the following:
1)He went to left and tried to save her wife but he has to indirectly killing her mother by not
saving her.
2)He went to the right and tried to save her mother but has to indirectly killing her wife by
not saving her.
3) He rushed back to inside the ship and call for help.

He wishes to do it morally right therefore he applies his moral ethical theory: The Virtue
ethics.

a. He is a virtue ethic advocate, there he get virtues by practicing whenever there are acts
that require moral decisions. That is, he does this nearly every day every moment.
b. He practice night and night to find the ‘mean’ required by the virtue ethics theory . That is
,the level of virtue action that is not excess and not deficiency for the requirement of any
moral act related with the situation.
c. Also, he would carefully check each decision he made whether they are morally related.
Eg. using company’s pencil to write letters; letters of his personal use, letters for company
use and letters partly personal and partly company .
d. He matches the virtues related with the action . eg. Courage,calm-in-crisis,

He end up
1) Go to the nearest fire alarm of people overboard, or fire alarm and sound alarm
2) Get any movable furniture to left (or right) to shown someone is overboard
3) Start manevoring the lifeboat on left or right as he decides to start the rescue
4) On the first sight of seeing people, tell them to save the other one and you start the
rescuing manevure of your choice.

III. Objection to Virtual ethics

William K. Frankena in his “ A critique of virtue –based ethics” argues that a virtue is a trait,
disposition, quality, habit etc but not a principle or rule. Both traits and principles are
necessary.,” traits(virtues) without principles are blind.” For example, the virtue of
truthfulness corresponds to the principle “ tell the truth,” and the virtue of being
benevolent derives from the general principle to act beneficently. There is a close
relationship between all the virtue and all of the principles. Actions had to be judged right or
wrong by a principle or a set of principle.
 Ethics of principe (doing) and ethics of virtue(being) are both required and are
complementary but principles are primary and virtue is supplementary.

There are only two cardinal virtues, benevolence and justice. All other virtues could be
derived from these two. Some of the virtues are even more morally related or just not
virtues. Even they are virtues, some virtues are basic(first order), others are less important
(second order)

It is hard to see what traits we should cultivate without principles.

In summary, William Frakena infers that virtue ethics are important in a way to show the
motives of any action but it is just a subset of deontological principles. It cannot stand alone
as a moral theory as it is not the basic judgement for morality but deontological principles of
duty are.

IV. Assessment
The good: Good development of argument to lead readers to put virtue ethics as
supplementary to deontological principles
1. acknowledge the important aspects of virtue ethics
2. But deontological principles have already incorporated the dispositions in every
principles.
3. All dispositions (virtues) are based on certain principles(deontological)
4. Therefore virtue ethics is supplementary to the basic deontological principles
5. Such conclusion would infer virtue ethics is not necessary as a moral theory,
deontological moral theories will be sufficiently replace it.

Inadequate to do away the virtue ethics:

Fail to see the difference of dynamic integration of virtual ethics 1) all necessary principles 2) at the right
level of combination (mean) to execute the act exactly required as morally right. Why the saint and hero
could act that ordinary people are not considered as able to.

Using principles can in a particular situation can only be done after the act is executed and find the
principle. It is not relevant anymore. Next time the situation and variables are all changed rendering the
principle not usable in a new particular situation.

The problem is not with principles but when to choose which principle – guided by virtue, not principles,
principle of choosing principles. It would need principles of choosing what principles, principles of
choosing when to choose principles, principles of how to choose princiles principles and choosing what
to think about choosing principles, list goes on and on
If deontological ethics and virtual ethics are complementary, it would be the virtual ethics first and
denological second because virtual ethics ( principle + action) and deontological ( principle only)

denotological reconcile conflicts between principles, virtue ethics has reconciled all principles involved
because an action showed the reconciliation of all principles involved.