Name: Phạm Thùy Linh

Student ID: 11196343

Class: Advanced International Business 61B

HOMEWORK 5
Task:

1. What is Virtue Ethics?

Virtue ethics is a theory used to make moral decisions. It doesn’t rely on religion,
society or culture; it only depends on individuals themselves. A virtue is a stable
disposition to act and feel according to an idea or model of excellence. The most
notable virtue ethicist is Aristotle. He was a great beliver of Virtue ethics and his
thought about meaning of virtue was to be able to fulfill a person’s function. To
Aristotle, the true goal of humans is the happiness which is the original of a good
life. To achieve the “Happiness”, the human beings must fulfill the natural and
distinctive function to them: living fully in accordance with the reason. The virtue
ethics is quite different from theutilitarism or the Kantianism. Virtue concentrates
on the question “Which kind of people should I become?” instead of “What should
I do?” as the utilitarian or Kantian; virture ethicists believed that the virtues
themselves presented for modes of behaving. According to virtue ethicist
Aristotle, the virtuous life both helps human beings achieve true happiness and is
the realization of true happiness and the benefit of virtues to him is to make people
good and to have a good life.

2. What did you learn from the video of Steve Job?

As we all know Steve Jobs devoted all his life to working to build a “powerful
empire” in the technology area. And he seemed to follow the Intellectual virtue
when he aimed at an extreme: to create the most powerful company, to be the
wealthiest. However, from his words on the deathbed, he looked back and realized
that he was not “really” happy at all. “Material things lost can be found, but there
is one thing that cannot be found when it is lost - LIFE”.

The lessons from Steve Jobs’ last words: first is knowing that money is not
everything. Do not spend all your time working as you cannot take your money,
your wealth with you when you pass away as the golden mean of virtue ethics:
extremes can be bad. Second is considering what are the most important things in
our life, what are the things that you cannot take back when you have lost, and
treasure them more. The last lesson is appreciating ourselves more: moral
goodness and enjoyment of life are the same things. Therefore, we should take care
of ourselves: take up a good habit, travel to our dream destination, enjoy moments
with our loving ones, and do the things that we would feel happy when we close
our eyes on our deathbeds.

3. Use the virtue ethics theory to express your idea about a good life that
may you choose to live.

Base on the virtue ethics theory, I will illustrate my own point of view about the
true happiness and the good life that I mostly interested in.

In today’s world, people often confuse with the definition of a good life. In a
hightech society, a variety of information is constantly shown through televisions,
megazines and so on, so that people are able to watch and admire the successful
individuals and their huge amount of assets. As a consequence, people practically
agree with the opinion that being rich and famous is the only way to come to a
good life. I totally disagree with that idea because when in truth, lots of rich and
famous people are miserable by problems that usually wouldn’t affect the common
people. In fact, there are only a few that are rich and famous and also achieve good
life. In addition, no one satisfies with their success and they always strive for the
better than what they are having. So, if there is no limitation of the wealth, how can
people who believe that happiness meant rich achieve the true happiness, the true
good life? The “good life” in my eyes doesn’t consist of too many factors. A good
life to me is about family, good friends, my home sweet home and a career that can
provide steady income to satisfy my needs (Dailylife expense, Money for vacation
with my family and my friends, ...) And then it’s up to me and my ability to catch
opportunities, promotion and to become more successful. There are also other
materials that would contribute to me leading to a good life would bethings like a
villa on the beach, nice car, fashionable clothes. But those things are not the main
factors that make me happy truly, they are just able to satisfy me. To me, the
spiritual value is much more significant than money although money is necessary
in life. For instance, I want to make more memorible moments with my family and
my bestfriends, and having vacations or going outside on weekends is so ideal. But
to do that,money is indispensable. Hence my family motivates me to do my best in
the study, inwork and in life. Overall, the good life and the true happiness in my
mind is a life that I can spend most time with my family and my best friends.