LESSON 5: FRAMEWORKS AND PRINCIPLES BEHIND OUR MORAL DISPOSITION

There is no one universally accepted way of deciding whether something is ethically

acceptable or not. Instead, there are several different ethical frameworks
Disposition is a person's inherent qualities of mind and character. The virtues and vices that
comprise one’s moral character are typically understood as dispositions to behave in certain
ways in certain sorts of circumstances. They are typically relatively stable and long-term.
A. VIRTUE ETHICS

When elucidating the nature of moral character, one could approach it primarily by
focusing on standards set by normative ethics.
NORMATIVE ETHICS is that branch of moral philosophy concerned with criteria of what is
morally right and wrong. It includes the formulation of moral rules that have direct implications
for what human actions, institutions, and ways of life should be like, Afterall at the heart of
Ethics is fundamentally related to what kind of person we are.
There are Three Major Approaches in Normative Ethics:

1. Virtue Ethics - emphasizes moral character

2. Deontology - emphasizes duties or rules
3. Consequentialism - emphasizes the consequences of actions.

Virtue ethics is character-based ethics. Arguably it is the oldest ethical theory in the
world, with origins in Ancient Greece. It defines good actions as ones that display virtuous
character. It is person based and looks at the moral character of the person. It helps us
understand what it means to be a virtuous human being. It provides guidance as to the sort of
characteristics and behaviours a good person will seek to achieve.

History

Virtue ethics began with Socrates, and was subsequently developed further by Plato,
Aristotle, and the Stoics. The Greek idea of the virtues was passed on in Roman philosophy
through Cicero and later incorporated into Christian moral theology by St. Ambrose of Milan.

During the Scholastic period, the most comprehensive consideration of the virtues from
a theological perspective was provided by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica and
his Commentaries on the Nicomachian Ethics.

Virtue ethics is a theory that focuses more on what sort of a person we should be.
It can be broken into two parts:
1. Eudaimonia - the highest good a human can achieve (ultimate happiness)
2. Arête - the actual virtues with which we attain eudaimonia.

Application: (Suppose it is obvious that someone in need should be helped)

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1. A Utilitarian will point to the fact that the consequences of doing so will maximize well-being.
2. A Deontologist, will be acting in accordance with a moral rule such as: “Do unto others as you
would be done by”
3. A Virtue ethicist to the fact that helping the person would be charitable or benevolent.

Virtue ethics’ founding fathers are Plato and Aristotle, and in the East, it can be traced
back to Mencius and Confucius.
It paid attention to:
o virtues and vices
o motives and moral character
o moral education
o moral wisdom or discernment
o friendship and family relationships
o a deep concept of happiness
o the role of the emotions in our moral life
o fundamental important questions of what sorts of persons we should be and how
we should live
Modern version of Virtue Ethics shows that its roots are in ancient Greek philosophy by
the employment of three concepts derived from it. These are:
1. arête (excellence or virtue)
2. phronesis (practical or moral wisdom)
3. eudaimonia (usually translated as happiness or flourishing)
VIRTUE
Virtue is excellence in human action. Virtue theorists believe that if we concentrate on
being righteous people, the right actions will follow; in other words, the people with the right
character tend to make the right decisions.
Virtues are good moral habits. They are attitudes, dispositions, or character traits that
enable us to be and to act in ways that develop this potential. They enable us to pursue the
ideals we have adopted. Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity, integrity, fairness,
self-control, and prudence are all examples of virtues.

Virtues are developed through learning and through practice. As the ancient philosopher
Aristotle suggested, a person can improve his or her character by practicing self-discipline,
while a good character can be corrupted by repeated self-indulgence. Just as the ability to run a
marathon develops through much training and practice, so too does our capacity to be fair, to be
courageous, or to be compassionate.

Virtues are habits. That is, once they are acquired, they become characteristic of a
person. For example, a person who has developed the virtue of generosity is often referred to
as a generous person because he or she tends to be generous in all circumstances. Moreover,
a person who has developed virtues will be naturally disposed to act in ways that are consistent
with moral principles. The virtuous person is the ethical person.

At the heart of the virtue approach to ethics is the idea of "community". A person's
character traits are not developed in isolation, but within and by the communities to which he or

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she belongs, including family, church, school, and other private and public associations. As
people grow and mature, their personalities are deeply affected by the values that their
communities prize, by the personality traits that their communities encourage, and by the role
models that their communities put forth for imitation through traditional stories, fiction, movies,
television, and so on. The virtue approach urges us to pay attention to the contours of our
communities and the habits of character they encourage and instill.

The moral life, then, is not simply a matter of following moral rules and of learning to
apply them to specific situations. The moral life is also a matter of trying to determine the kind of
people we should be and of attending to the development of character within our communities
and ourselves.

To possess a virtue is to be a certain sort of person with a certain complex mindset. A

significant aspect of this mindset is the wholehearted acceptance of a distinctive range of
considerations as reasons for action. An honest person’s reasons and choices with respect to
honest and dishonest actions reflect her views about honesty, truth, and deception.
Valuing honesty one chooses, where possible to work with honest people, to have
honest friends, to bring up one’s children to be honest, disapproves of, dislikes, deplores
dishonesty, is not amused by certain tales of chicanery, despises or pities those who succeed
through deception rather than thinking they have been clever, is unsurprised, or pleased (as
appropriate) when honesty triumphs, is shocked or distressed when those near and dear to her
do what is dishonest and so on. Given that a virtue is such a multi-track disposition, it would
obviously be reckless to attribute one to an agent on the basis of a single observed action or
even a series of similar actions, especially if one doesn’t know the agent’s reasons for doing.
Possessing a virtue is a matter of degree. To possess such a disposition fully is to
possess full or perfect virtue, which is rare, and there are a number of ways of falling short of
this ideal. Most people who can truly be described as fairly virtuous, and certainly markedly
better than those who can truly be described as dishonest, self-centered and greedy, still have
their blind spots; little areas where they do not act for the reasons one would expect. So,
someone honest or kind in most situations, and notably so in demanding ones, may
nevertheless be trivially tainted by snobbery, inclined to be disingenuous about their forebears
and less than kind to strangers with the wrong accent.
Further, it is not easy to get one’s emotions in harmony with one’s rational
recognition of certain reasons for action. Following and adapting Aristotle, virtue ethicists
draw a distinction between full or perfect virtue and “continence”, or strength of will. The fully
virtuous do what they should without a struggle against contrary desires; the continent have to
control a desire or temptation to do otherwise.
There is something particularly admirable about people who manage to act well when it
is especially hard for them to do so. If it is the circumstances in which the agent acts, example;
say that one is very poor and sees someone drop a full purse or that she is in deep grief when
someone visits seeking help—then indeed it is particularly admirable for one to restore the
purse or give the help when it is hard for one to do so.
PRACTICAL WISDOM
The concept of a virtue is the concept of something that makes its possessor good: a
virtuous person is a morally good, excellent or admirable person who acts and feels as she
should. The virtuous person is the ethical person

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 The reliance on motivation by inclination, gives us what Aristotle calls natural virtue, one
awaiting perfection by phronesis or practical wisdom. Both the virtuous adult and the nice child
have good intentions, but the child is much more prone to mess things up because he is
ignorant of what he needs to know in order to do what he intends. A virtuous adult is not, of
course, infallible and may also, on occasion, fail to do what she intended to do through lack of
knowledge, but only on those occasions on which the lack of knowledge is not culpable. So, for
example, children and adolescents often harm those they intend to benefit either because they
do not know how to set about securing the benefit or because their understanding of what is
beneficial and harmful is limited and often mistaken. Such ignorance in small children is rarely,
if ever culpable. Adults, on the other hand, are culpable if they mess things up by being
thoughtless, insensitive, reckless, impulsive, shortsighted, and by assuming that what suits
them will suit everyone instead of taking a more objective viewpoint. They are also culpable if
their understanding of what is beneficial and harmful is mistaken. It is part of practical wisdom
to know how to secure real benefits effectively; those who have practical wisdom will not make
the mistake of concealing the hurtful truth from the person who really needs to know it in the
belief that they are benefiting him.
Practical wisdom is the knowledge or understanding that enables its possessor to do in
any given situation. The detailed specification of what is involved in such knowledge or
understanding has not yet appeared in the literature, but some aspects of it are becoming well
known. Correct application requires situational appreciation the capacity to recognize, in any
particular situation, those features of it that are morally salient.
Two aspects of practical wisdom:
1. One is that it characteristically comes only with experience of life. Amongst the morally
relevant features of a situation may be the likely consequences, for the people involved, of a
certain action, and this is something that adolescents are notoriously clueless about precisely
because they are inexperienced. It is part of practical wisdom to be wise about human beings
and human life. (It should go without saying that the virtuous are mindful of the consequences of
possible actions. How could they fail to be reckless, thoughtless and short-sighted?)
2. The second is the practically wise agent’s capacity to recognize some features of a
situation as more important than others, or indeed, in that situation, as the only relevant ones.
The wise do not see things in the same way as the nice adolescents who, with their under-
developed virtues, still tend to see the personally disadvantageous nature of a certain action as
competing in importance with its honesty or benevolence or justice.
The practically wise are those who understand what is truly worthwhile, truly
important, and thereby truly advantageous in life, who know how to live life well.

Forms of Virtue Ethics

Four distinct forms of contemporary virtue ethics:
1. Eudaimonist virtue ethics
2. Agent-based and exemplarist virtue ethics
3. Target-centered virtue ethics
4. Platonistic virtue ethics.
1. Eudaimonist Virtue Ethics

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 Eudaimonist Virtue Ethics is anchored in the concept of eudaimonia, a Greek word
translated as “happiness” or “flourishing” and occasionally as “well-being.” It consists of
what it is to live well as a human being seeking real happiness worth having.
Virtue ethicists claim that a human life devoted to physical pleasure or the acquisition of
wealth is a wasted life. It asserts that virtues are those character traits that benefit their
possessor, barring bad luck.
2. Agent-Based and Exemplarist Virtue Ethics
Agent-based virtue ethics understands rightness in terms of good motivations
and wrongness in terms of bad motives. Right and wrong actions are in reference to the
emotions, motives, and dispositions of virtuous and vicious agents. Dispositions
distinguishes someone for performing the right action and doing so for the right reasons.
3. Target-Centered Virtue Ethics
Target-centered view begins with the idea that practicing virtues get a tick of approval
then examines what traits are involved.
It will map its….
Field (where Mode of Responsiveness Basis of Moral Target (that at
different virtues (How it responds to the Acknowledgment which it is aimed)
are concerned bases of acknowledgment (the feature within
with) within its field) the virtue’s field to
which it responds)
Example
Courage is Courage defends a value, Courage responds to Courage aims to
concerned with bond, or status. threats to value, control fear and
what might harm status, or the bonds handle danger
us. that exist between
oneself and others
and the fear such
. threats might
generate

Generosity is Generosity promotes good, Generosity is generosity aims to

concerned with namely, another’s benefit attentive to the share time, talents,
the sharing of benefits that others or possessions
time, talent, and might enjoy through with others in ways
property. one’s agency that benefit them.

In order to define right action, a target-centered view must explain how we handle
different virtues’ conflicting claims on our resources. There are at least three different ways to
address this challenge.
1. A perfectionist target-centered account would stipulate, “An act is right if and only if it is
overall virtuous, and that entails that it is the, or a, best action possible in the circumstances”
2. A more permissive target-centered account would not identify ‘right’ with ‘best’, but would
allow an action to count as right provided “it is good enough even if not the (or a) best action”

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3. A minimalist target-centered account would not even require an action to be good in order to
be right. On such a view, “An act is right if and only if it is not overall vicious”
4. Platonistic Virtue Ethics
Good agency in the truest and fullest sense presupposes the contemplation of the Form
of the Good. In the moral life the enemy is the fat relentless ego. Constantly attending to our
needs, our desires, our passions, and our thoughts skews our perspective on what the world is
actually like and blinds us to the goods around us. Contemplating the goodness of something
we encounter draws our attention away from ourselves. Contemplating such goodness with
regularity makes room for new habits of thought that focus more readily and more honestly on
things other than the self. It alters the quality of our consciousness. Anything which alters
consciousness in the direction of unselfishness, objectivity, and realism is to be connected with
virtue.
Another Platonistic variant of virtue ethics begins with an account of the metaphysics of
goodness which is built around a conception of a supremely perfect good… God who is both the
exemplification and the source of all goodness. Other things are good to the extent that they
resemble God.
Virtues come into the account as one of the ways in which some persons could
resemble God. Such virtues are commonly attributed to divine agents.
HAPPINESS AS VIRTUE
According to Aristotle being virtuous is a skill and that we need to learn and practice it to
be good at it. Humans have a rational soul and the use of reason functions as the central
principle for human action. Being a good human being is living a life of eudaimonia which
consists of engaging in rational activity like rational reflection or intellectual contemplation. A set
of virtues will help a moral agent to be a successful member of society, and would bring
him/her eudaimonia. He emphasized the attainment of virtue and happiness through moderation
in all things.

Happiness is not pleasure. It is the exercise of virtues. Since man is a rational animal,
human happiness depends on the exercise of his reason. Happiness depends on acquiring a
moral character, where one displays virtues in one's life. Education is the embodiment of
character refinement. Striving for the perfect self gives life meaning and direction. Having a
meaningful, purposeful life is valuable.

Moral behavior is the mean between two extremes - at one end is excess, at the other
deficiency. Find a moderate position between those two extremes, and you will be acting
morally.

Aristotle identifies approximately eighteen virtues that enable a person to perform their
human function well. He distinguished virtues pertaining to emotion and desire from those
relating to the mind. The first he calls "moral" virtues, and the second intellectual virtues (though
both are "moral" in the modern sense of the word. Each moral virtue was a mean between two
corresponding vices, one of excess and one of deficiency. Each intellectual virtue is a mental
skill or habit by which the mind arrives at truth, affirming what is or denying what is not. In
the Nicomachean Ethics he discusses about 11 moral virtues:
Moral Virtues
1. Courage in the face of fear

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2. Temperance in the face of pleasure and pain
3. Liberality with wealth and possessions
4. Magnificence with great wealth and possessions
5. Magnanimity with great honors
6. Proper ambition with normal honors
7. Truthfulness with self-expression
8. Wittiness in conversation
9. Friendliness in social conduct
10. Modesty in the face of shame or shamelessness
11. Righteous indignation in the face of injury

SPHERE OF
ACTION OR EXCESS MEAN DEFICIENCY
FEELING

Fear and
Rashness Courage Cowardice
Confidence

Licentiousness/Self-
Pleasure and Pain Temperance Insensibility
indulgence

Getting and
Prodigality Liberality Illiberality/Meanness
Spending(minor)

Getting and
Vulgarity/Tastelessness Magnificence Pettiness/Stinginess
Spending(major)

Honor and
Vanity Magnanimity Pusillanimity
Dishonor(major)

Honor and Proper Unambitiousness/undue

Ambition/empty vanity
Dishonor(minor) ambition/pride humility

Patience/Good Lack of
Anger Irascibility
temper spirit/unirascibility

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 Understatement/mock
Self-expression Boastfulness Truthfulness
modesty

Conversation Buffoonery Wittiness Boorishness

Social Conduct Obsequiousness Friendliness Cantankerousness

Shame Shyness Modesty Shamelessness

Righteous Malicious
Indignation Envy
indignation enjoyment/Spitefulness

Intellectual virtues

1. Nous (intelligence), which apprehends fundamental truths (such as definitions,

self-evident principles)
2. Episteme (science), which is skill with inferential reasoning (such as proofs,
syllogisms, demonstrations)
3. Sophia (theoretical wisdom), which combines fundamental truths with valid,
necessary inferences to reason well about unchanging truths.
Aristotle also mentions several other traits:

 Gnome (good sense) – passing judgment, "sympathetic understanding"

 Synesis (understanding) – comprehending what others say, does not issue
commands
 Phronesis (practical wisdom) – knowledge of what to do, knowledge of changing
truths, issues commands
 Techne (art, craftsmanship)

THE CARDINAL VIRTUES AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Saints, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas taught that the happy life is the blessed life
found in God, who is Truth and Love.

Basically, virtue is a habitual and firm disposition toward doing what is right and good,
seeking the excellence of personal perfection so as to govern one’s actions and be the master
of one’s desires. Principal among the virtues are prudence, temperance, justice and fortitude, in
that all other manifestations of good human activity in some way hinge upon these four “cardinal
virtues,” which are knowable by human nature.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that prudence guides the judgment of our
conscience in discerning our true good and in applying moral principles to particular

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circumstances. Saint Thomas Aquinas described prudence as “right reason in action.” Helping
us to manage well our lives so as to do good and avoid evil, prudence is the guide and measure
for all the moral virtues.

The virtue of temperance “moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in
the use of created goods.” God, endowed human life with many good instincts and desires, but
as a result of Original Sin, many of these desires have become disordered, leading us to sin.
Temperance allows us to exercise self-control and keep our worldly passions within the limits of
what is good and honorable, rather than being a slave to them. Perhaps another way to
describe it is “moderation in all things.” Temperance involves the balanced use of the many
goods given us so that their use remains ordered and at the service of the development of a
good, well-rounded and complete person.

Certainly, all of us want to be a part of and contribute to a good and just

society. Justice is the virtue that consists in giving to God and neighbor what is due to each,
giving to them what rightly belongs to them. A social virtue, justice disposes us to respect the
rights and freedoms of others and seeks to establish the peace and harmony that bring together
people and allow them to prosper while living in community.

When life presents its inevitable trials and tribulations, the virtue of fortitude, or courage
in the face of these challenges, goes to work. Fortitude provides the ability to persevere in
adversity. When we are confronted with moral choices, fortitude allows us to remain strong and
constant in our pursuit of what is good and gives us the strength to resist temptation that would
pull us in the wrong direction.

The pursuit of happiness passes by way of virtue. However, it is not always easy or
automatic. The old adage “practice makes perfect” is applicable not only to one’s golf stroke,
tennis swing or piano playing, but also to virtue.

The strength of our character will reflect the perfection of our virtue. Moreover, the
highest happiness corresponds to the highest virtues – the theological virtues of faith, hope and
love which relate us to God and then, ultimately, to one another.