VIRTUE ETHICS

Lecture 9
• We usually admire people who are wise, courageous, kind, honest,
generous, just, sympathetic, diligent, moderate, hospitable,
disciplined, grateful, humble, and so on. Such traits of character are
traditionally known as virtues.
• The word virtue originally came from the Latin vir and referred to
strength or manliness. For Aristotle, the term “virtue” is equivalent to
the Greek word arete meaning “excellence”.
• In Aristotle’s moral philosophy virtue refers to moral excellence in
human behavior aimed at doing what is right and avoiding what is
wrong. The opposite of virtue is vice.

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• The theories that we have so far discussed, viz., Divine Command
Theory, Normative Egoism, Normative Altruism, Utilitarianism, and
Deontology, are concerned with developing a standard or principle for
determining “what we ought to do”.
• Virtue ethics takes a different approach to morality, and shifts the
basic concern from rule development to character development. In
other words, in virtue ethics the emphasis shifts from asking the
“action-based” question about “what we ought to do” to asking the
“agent-based” question about “how we ought to be”, i.e., “what
person we ought to be”.

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• Virtue ethics is an approach to ethics that takes the notion of virtue (often
conceived as excellence) as fundamental. Virtue ethics is primarily
concerned with traits of character that are essential to human flourishing,
not with the enumeration of duties.
• In order to make a person into a good person, virtue ethics is concerned
with developing those traits of character, habits, tendencies, and
dispositions that are “generally desirable”, given the nature of the physical
world, human nature, and human association.
• A basic ethical concern is to discover our latent qualities and potentialities,
that is, to find out the facts about ‘what we are’ and ‘what we can become’
as an essential prerequisite for deciding what is good or right.
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• In his work Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle defined virtue as a state of
character concerned with the choice of a golden or desirable mean
between the two extremes, one of deficiency and the other of
excess, of any trait determined by a rational principle.
• For example, generosity is a virtue as it is the mean between the two
extremes, viz., the deficiency of generosity known as miserliness and
the excess of generosity known as extravagance. Similarly, courage is
the mean between cowardliness and recklessness, and confidence
between self-deprecation (state of being conscious and apologetic of
one’s own shortcomings) and vanity (feelings of excessive pride). In
Aristotle's sense, virtue is excellence at being human.

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• The following are the characteristics of virtue:
• (1) Moral virtue is a habit or state of character developed by a process of learning
and repeated actions.
• (2) Moral virtue as a habit is an acquired character.
• (3) Moral virtue involves a choice concerned not with knowing what virtue is but
with becoming good.
• (4) Moral virtue is a good habit that exists in the mean, avoiding the extremes of
excess and deficiency.
• (5) The mean is not located at a similar point for all individuals, if there are
relevant differences in the circumstances of those acts.
• (6) The relative mean is “determined by a rational principle” or practical wisdom
for judging the intermediate between excess and deficiency in actions.

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• For Aristotle, eudaimonia is the highest human good, the only human
good that is desirable for its own sake (as an end in itself) rather than for
the sake of something else (as a means toward some other end).
• According to Aristotle, every living or human-made thing, including its
parts, has a unique or characteristic function or activity that distinguishes
it from all other things. The highest good of a thing consists of the good
performance of its characteristic function, and the virtue or excellence of
a thing consists of whatever traits or qualities enable it to perform that
function well. (Thus, the virtue or excellence of a knife is whatever enables
the good performance of cutting, that of an eye whatever enables the good
performance of seeing, and so on.)

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• It follows that eudaimonia consists of the good performance of the
characteristic function of human beings, whatever that may be, and
human virtue or excellence is that combination of traits or qualities
that enables humans to perform that function well. Aristotle believes
that the characteristic function of human beings, that which
distinguishes them from all other things, is their ability to reason.
• Accordingly, “if the function of man is an activity of soul which follows
or implies a rational principle,” and if the human good is the good
performance of that function, then the “human good turns out to be
[rational] activity of soul in accordance with virtue,” or rational
activity performed virtuously or excellently (Nichomachean Ethics,
Book I, chapter 7).
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• According to Aristotle, eudaimonia is an activity (or a range of
activities) rather than a state, and it necessarily involves the exercise
of reason. Moreover, the intellectual and moral virtues or excellences
of which it is constituted are not innate talents or quickly acquired
forms of knowledge but rather are abiding traits that arise only
through long habituation, reflection, and the benefits of appropriate
social experiences and circumstances (including material
circumstances). For that reason, eudaimonia must be the
achievement of a “complete life,” or at least much of a life: “For one
swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one
day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy”
(Nichomachean Ethics, Book I, chapter 7).
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• In the mid-20th century, eudaemonism, or the philosophical theory of
human well-being, and virtue ethics were revived as sophisticated
and psychologically more realistic alternatives to action-based ethical
theories such as deontology and consequentialism (see
also utilitarianism), each of which seemed to
entail counterintuitive conclusions despite complicated theoretical
modifications over the course of two centuries.

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• Virtue ethics can be criticized on several grounds:
• 1. When asked what we should do in any given situation, the virtue ethicist generally
answers that we should do what a virtuous person would do. However, how do we
identify this ideal virtuous person upon whom we should model ourselves? For example,
the Christian Tradition would identify the “ideal virtuous person” as Jesus. However, non-
Christians might disagree. Virtue ethics does not tell us how to resolve this.
• 2. Likewise, how are we to identify the virtues to which we should aspire? Aristotle, an
advocate for virtue ethics, proposed, what he called, “the Golden Mean,” which
represents the middle between extremes. For example, the virtue of courage is found
between the extremes of cowardice, on the one hand, and recklessness, on the other.
While that sounds good, it is vague. Where exactly along that spectrum does the virtue
of courage reside?
• 3. Virtue ethics also does little to help us determine how to behave in morally confusing
situations, where virtues appear to conflict. For example, what would a virtuous woman,
who is both honest and compassionate, do when faced with a murderer who is asking
her where the friend she just invited into her house is hiding?

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• The 3 Key Ideas from Aristotle That Will Help You Flourish

• To get the basics of Aristotelian ethics, you have to understand three

basic things: what Eudaimonia (Flourishing) is, what Virtue is, and
That We Become Better Persons Through Practice.

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