Moral Agent:

Developing Virtue as a Habit

BY: CHARLIE M. BARECANTE JR.
JOSEPH ESCALONA
Moral Agent
•person who has the ability to discern
right from wrong and to be held
accountable for his or her own actions
•have a moral responsibility not to
cause unjustified harm
Virtue Ethics
•philosophy developed by Aristotle and
other ancient Greeks
•quest to understand and live a life of
moral character
• This character-based approach to morality
assumes that we acquire virtue through
practice. By practicing being honest,
brave, just, generous, and so on, a person
develops an honorable and moral
character. According to Aristotle, by
honing virtuous habits, people will likely
make the right choice when faced with
ethical challenges.
Virtue as a Habit
• Virtues, according to Aristotle, are habits and that
the good life is a life of mindless routine.
• dispositions to act in certain ways in response to
similar situations, the habits of behaving in certain
way
• Thus, good conduct arises from habits that in turn
can only be acquired by repeated action and
correction
Developing Virtue as a Habit
• Aristotle believed that virtue as a habit requires
an intentional choice when you begin.
• Over time one becomes used to behaving
virtuously and after a while one acts virtuously
without needing to use volition. You have
become virtuous, it’s now part of you and how
you act.
• Aristotle defines moral virtue as a disposition
to behave in the right manner and as a mean
between extremes of deficiency and excess,
which are vices. We learn moral virtue
primarily through habit and practice rather
than through reasoning and instruction.