Revision:Virtue Ethics

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Introduction

Virtue Ethics is in real contrast to two major ethical theories, Kantian ethics and Utilitariansim. It is also different to Natural Law as all of these take the moment of moral choice as their starting point. It differs from deontological ethics because it is not concerned with paticular duties or ethical absolutes. it also differs from Normative Ethics because it is not concerned with what should I do but with the question of 'What kind of person should I be? and is about virtues that make for a good moral life.

Aristotle

Aristotle was concerned with causes and change and believed that everything has a telos and the Human end or telos is to achieve Eudaimonia (happiness). For humans to flourish, they needed to practice virtue (arete) and by practicing we improve our virtues and so become happy and live good lives. He states that the happiness of the individual is of less value than the happiness of the community (links to Utilitarianism).

He stated that there were three ways of living a happy life:

1)To love pleasure 2) To love honour (Politics) 3) To love Contemplation (Philosophy)

He regarded the love of contemplation to be of the highest regard as you use reason.

Elizabeth Anscombe

She believed in developing virtues from which good actions would follow and called this 'human flourishing.'

Argues that ethical codes which lay a stress on moral absolutes and laws are useless in a society which has effectively abandoned God.

Alasdair MacIntyre

Believes that our society has lost track of the virtues. He says that a moral society would be one in which people recognise and accept common virtues. He also noted that in moral dilemmas naturalistic theories are of little value because they are too time consuming and overly complex.

Richard Taylor

Rejected a system of morality which is based on divine commands and which discourages people from achieving their full potential.

Strengths

• Focuses on cultivating good people from which good actions will follow, rather than the pedantic drafting of legalistic laws
• Can be followed by both religious and secular groups
• It is a simple system based on a universal well-being for the individual and community
• It attempts to link ethical theory with ethical practice
• Strives for personal autonomy but within the context of society

Criticisms

• How do we decide which virtues should be cultivated the most?
• The Golden mean is not easy to apply to all virtues
• Because the emphasis is on being rather than doing, it can seem a selfish theory
• Hannah Arendt argued that virtue theory fails to provide us with a proper understanding of what she called "goodness beyond virute and evil beyond vice"
• Virtues are traditional concepts. MacIntyre might argue that we have forgotten the old truths but this does not mean that they are good truths

Comments

This can be used for students who are studying religious studies especially the OCR philosophy and ethics Religious Studies sylabus

This was created by Chrisateen