Virtue Ethics

Think about your habits. What kind of person are they

turning you into?

Intended Learning Outcomes:

1. Differentiate virtue ethics from other moral theories
2. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of virtue ethics

Utilitarian ethics – judges right and wrong based from

outcomes.
Kantianism – focuses on duty and adhering to strict
moral laws.
Virtue ethics does not focus on how we should behave, it
does not provide rules and laws but rather it focuses on
the character of the person and living a moral life.
It is not about what should I do but rather what sort of
person should I be.
- An ethical theory that is about the character of the
individual.
- It is centered on how should I be, how should I live
and how can I improve.

Human beings have a purpose,

- the concept of Eudaimonia – a type of pure happiness,
full satisfaction, fulfillment.
Everything we do is to strive for eudaimonia, everything
we desire, we believe it will make us happy and bring us
closer to eudaimonia.
If you ask someone; why are you going to work? To
earn money. Why? To pay rent, to buy food, why? to
have a better quality of life and be happy.
 Why go on a date? To find love? Why? To get married,
to start a family, why? To be happy.

Aristotle believe in order for us to fulfill our purpose of

eudaimonia, we must live a virtuous life. This is vital to
the purpose of a human being.

What is a virtue? A character trait that makes us a better

people
- Makes a human a good human.
- It is a moral trait we need to be happy.
Ex. Courage, temperance, justice, wisdom
Practical wisdom is not just having an understanding of
virtuous character traits such as modesty or courage but
it is knowing how to act upon this understanding and
implement this character traits when necessary.
- The ability to do the right thing at the right time.
- Good application of knowledge

Doctrine of Mean or Golden Mean – the understanding

that virtue lies between two vices.
Any extreme is a vice – a deficiency or excess of virtue.
Courage is the virtue; cowardice is the deficiency and
recklessness is the excess.
Example, 20 enemies are approaching you – if you will
face them alone – recklessness, if you will run away –
cowardice – courage is assessing the situation and calling
for help if necessary.
Working 20 hours a day and never see your friends
and family is a vice, but to never work and be lazy is also
a vice, Ambition lies in the golden mean.
Generosity – giving all your money to charity and
leaving you homeless is foolishness, but stinginess, never
buy anyone a gift is also not a desirable trait.

We must use our practical wisdom when to be generous

and when not to be, to understand what we can afford
and to who we can be generous to.

Aside from practical reason and golden mean WE should

also learn from the exemplars, we should emulate them
to become virtuous – Jesus Christ, Mother Theresa,
Gautama Buddha.
We must practice being virtuous, it not something we
instantly pick up, you need to work at it everyday and
eventually it will become part of your nature.

We must use our practical wisdom, the golden mean,

learning from other virtuous people and practicing in
order for us to become virtuous, we will become better
people and will be closer to reaching eudaimonia.

Criticisms:
1. No specific rules to follow, no specific outcomes to
strive for.

2. What about the golden mean – let’s say adultery – is

complete faithfulness a vice, and a lot of adultery
too, so moderate adultery is a virtue? - Aristotle
said, there were certain things that were always
 vices in any amount. We cannot say that some
stealing is a virtue, some cheating is virtue

3. Golden mean is hard to implement and can become

subjective – Is it courageous to drive very fast to be
on time for a meeting? Is it courageous to fight off 2
home intruders?

4. Virtue ethics is a selfish approach to ethics since it is

not about doing your duty like Kantianism, or to
maximize pleasure like utilitarianism, this is only for
the good of you reaching your happiness, and
reaching your eudaimonia.