LEARNING MODULE NO.

11

Name: ______________________________________________ Score: ________________

Course and Year: ______________________________________ Date: _________________

Subject: Ethics

Module Title: VIRTUE ETHICS

Learning Outcome:

 Discuss the meaning and basic principles of virtue ethics;

 Distinguish virtuous acts from non-virtuous acts; and
 Apply Aristotle’s ethics in understanding the Filipino character.

Reference:
 ETHICS (Foundations of Moral Evaluation)

I. Concept Notes/Big Ideas/Summary

 Virtue (arete)- skill or habit of character
 Prudence (phronesis) – practical wisdom
 Intellectual excellence (Sophia) – non-normal wisdom
 Happiness (eudaimonia) – flourishing

One theory that can be possibly provide a comprehensive understanding of how an individual can
develop moral character is virtue ethics.

Virtue Ethics

 The ethical framework that is concerned with understanding the good as a matter of
developing the virtuous character of a person.
 Focuses on the formation of one’s character brought about by determining and doing virtuous
acts.

The two major thinkers of Ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle, had discourses concerning virtue.
But Aristotle’s book entitled Nicomachean Ethics is the first comprehensive and programmatic stud of
virtue ethics. Aristotle’s discourse of ethics departs from the Platonic understanding of reality and
conception of the good. Both Plato and Aristotle affirm rationality as the highest faculty of a person and
having such characteristics enables a person to realize the very purpose of her existence. But at the end,
they differ in their appreciation of reality and nature which, in turn, results in their contrasting stands on
what the ethical principle should be.

Plato
-the real is outside the realm of any human sensory experience but can somehow be grasped by one’s
intellect. The truth and, ultimately, the good are in the sphere of forms or ideas transcending daily
human condition.

Aristotle

-the real is found within our everyday encounter with objects in the world. What makes nature
intelligible is its character of having both form and matter. Therefore, the truth and the good cannot
exist apart from the object and are not independent of our experiences.

Happiness and Ultimate Purpose

Aristotle’s virtue ethics starts with recognizing that happiness is the ultimate purpose or telos of
a person. As the ultimate purpose, happiness is deemed as the final and self-sufficient end of a person. It
is by realizing the highest goal of a person that she achieves happiness that is also considered as the
greatest good. Attaining happiness is arrived at when she performs her function, which is to act in
accordance to reason in an outstanding manner. It is in doing her function well that virtue, excellence, or
arête is realized.

Virtue as Excellence

Achieving the highest purpose of a human person concerns the ability to function according to
reason and to perform an activity well or excellently. This excellent way of doing things is called virtue or
arête by the Greeks. Aristotle is quick to add that virtue is something that one strives for in time. One
does not become an excellent person overnight. Aristotle says that excellence is an activity of the
human soul and therefore, one needs to understand the very structure of a person’s soul which must be
directed her rational activity in an excellent way.

Aristotle’s idea of the soul

Rational side-intellectual skills or virtues (technical and scientific)

-moral skill or virtues (practical wisdom)

Non-rational side- desires (warmth, clothing, shelter)

-appetites (food, drink)

By developing the intellectual skills, we excel in Sophia (intellectual excellence).

By developing the Moral skills, we excel in phronesis(prudence)

Moral Virtue and Mesotes

A morally virtuous target the mesotes. Mesotes determines whether the act applied is not
excessive or deficient.

Moral virtue is firstly the condition arrived at by a person who has a character identified out of
her habitual exercise of particular actions. One’s character is seen as a growth in terms of the continues
preference for the good. Secondly in moral virtue the action done that morally manifests feelings and
passions is chosen because it is middle. The middle does not fall short or excessive of the proper
proportion by which these feelings or passions should be expressed.

To sum up, moral virtue, according to Aristotle, is a “state of character” which habitually acts
according to the middle measure that practical wisdom identifies as the moral choice that should be
acted upon, given the concrete situation that presents to the person. The goal of virtue ethics is to
promote the maturity of the character of the person. building a good character is a task and
responsibility of every person.

Learning Activity:

ESSAY: Explain the question precisely.

1. How is a person’s character formed according to Aristotle?