Quejano, Mark Luis B.

GEED10033
BSRE 2-1

Is Virtue Ethics a reliable and sufficient moral guide for action? Consider its strengths and
weaknesses as a moral theory.

Morality strikes everyone’s mind. Finding a moral guide that can help us show the true path to
eudaimonia is a challenging task. Making just decisions and doing good can be poisonous if not
done right. Virtue Ethics may be reliable for what Aristotle argued.
A person ought to do what is good and what is just in order to be considered a good person,
otherwise he did not fulfill what should be fulfilled in his/her life. Things that are supposed to be
done should be done with every thought to it not necessarily what others say about it. Aristotle
said that in order to do good things, a person must practice to do it habitually. It this manner, if a
person repeatedly do good things, if time comes to make a crucial decision, s/he will make the
right decision because of all the good things s/he has already done. It does not take any rules or
writings in the past to know what is good or bad, what is just or unjust. A person just have imitate
a virtuous person and s/he will be virtuous as well.
In that case, this moral guide’s weakness shows. How can a person know what is good and just?
How can an individual notice a virtuous person’s action? If good things are subjective, how can a
person know if s/he is doing the right thing? That idea that there is no one to tell what is the
distinction between good or bad is what makes Virtue Ethics insufficient.
All being said, like any other moral guide such as utilitarianism and deontology lacks something.
It is up to us how to make rational resolutions for our life to be better.