Ethics CH4 Virtue ethics PDF

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VIRTUE ETHICSVIRTUE THEORY Virtues – are trained behavioral dispositions that result in habitual acts of moral goodness  Vices – are trained behavioral dispositions that result in habitual acts of moral wrongness  It is an ethical system that is based on the notion of virtue  Central theme : mor...

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ETHICS

VIRTUE ETHICS VIRTUE THEORY  Virtues – are trained behavioral dispositions that result in habitual acts of moral goodness  Vices – are trained behavioral dispositions that result in habitual acts of moral wrongness  It is an ethical system that is based on the notion of virtue  Central theme : morality involves producing excellent persons, who act well out of spontaneous goodness and serve as examples to inspire others  It is teleologically oriented  It focuses on the goal of life; living well and achieving excellence  It claims that it is important not to only do the right thing but also have the proper dispositions, motivations, and emotions in being good and doing right. SOCRATES & PLATO SOCRATES (470-399 B.C.)  Born in Athens in 470 BC  Is a son of a sculptor and a midwife  He is a sculptor as well  Married Xanthippe  He criticized and questioned the selfknowledge and self-righteousness of Sophists  He was put on trial for atheism and corruption of the youth  He was sentenced to death penalty by drinking a hemlock 

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“What is the way we ought to live” – is a very important question that everyone should ponder upon. Yet most people never seriously contemplate this question. This question requires one to have selfknowledge. “The unexamined life is not worth living” – Knowing ourselves leads to knowledge of how we ought to live. What is good are those that makes us happy and what is evil are those that makes us suffer

EUTHYPRO  What is dear to the gods is pious, and what is not is impious.  Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods.  Pious is what all the gods love. What all the gods hate is impious.

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Someone who can grasp what the forms of justice, beauty, and goodness are, will be far better able to see what must be done to enhance the justice, beauty, and goodness of the everyday world.

VIRTUE  To please the gods, one must also love the good, that is, to be virtuous.  It is also known as the supreme good  To attain virtue one must have knowledge of what really virtue is.  When we arrive at knowledge of what is virtue we become virtuous.  When we are virtuous we perfect our souls and will attain happiness Arete – excellence, virtue, virtuosity, virtuoso. It refers to being brilliant or excellent in a particular area of life. EVIL IS THE RESULT OF IGNORANCE  People do evil acts because they do not know any better.  Evil actions are done out of ignorance or done involuntarily SUFFER OR COMMIT INJUSTICE?  It is better to suffer injustice than to commit injustice.  Socrates was sentenced to death because his questioning was thought to corrupt the youth. He contended that it was better to do the right thing and obey God than to obey man.  Even in his death, Socrates taught people to seek virtue and wisdom above self-interest PLATO  His actual name was Aristocles, who is a son of a wealthy and powerful family  At age 20, he became student of Socrates, and after the passing of his mentor, he wandered around Greece and Mediterranean.  In the year 286, he founded an academy where the saying “Let no one ignorant of mathematics enter here” is placed above its doorway  He died at age 80, while in his sleep.

HUMAN BODY AND SOUL  Plato argued that the human has a body and soul

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Soul – immortal and persists even after the body dies. Plato believed that the human soul has been in direct contact with the Forms prior to the soul’s embodiment during birth The philosophical task is to recollect the memory of the forms Though the task partly concerns epistemology, it is essentially a moral task

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His first wife Pythias died, Aristotle eventually had a 2nd woman with the name of Herpyllis , who gave birth to Nicomachus When Alexander succeeded King Philip as emperor, Aristotle when back to Athens and established his own school at the Lyceum, that was dedicated to the God Apollo Lykeios.

WORKS OF ARISTOTLE

IDEA OF THE GOOD AND VIRTUE  The primary Form is the Form of the Good  All attempts to acquire knowledge are attempts to achieve the knowledge of Good  Whoever knows the Good would become good, one would acquire knowledge of all virtues and become virtuous himself.  All moral error is really ignorance FUNCTION OF THE SOUL  Our function is determined by the kind of thing we are.  It has three parts, namely the reason, spirit, and desires. Division of the soul • Desire – is represented by the bad horse. When out of control, the individual becomes an indulgent hedonist with no real sense of what is good for us overall. • Spirit – is represented by the good horse. When it gets out of control, the individual becomes headstrong and impulsive, always leaping into things and making snap decisions • Reason – controls and shapes the impulses and maintains a balanced and harmonious soul.

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When the just man has bound these elements into a disciplined and harmonious whole, he will be ready for action of any kind, whether it is political or personal.

ARISTOTLE  After the death of Hermeas, Aristotle was invited by King Philip of Macedonia to tutor the young Alexander

Ideas on essence, change, act • Change is not due to poor copying of forms but is an essential part of reality • The substance is constantly moving to fulfil its true form which is inherent within the individual • Teleological – a perspective where all motion/change is a kind of purposeful goalseeking activity Aristotle’s perspective on ethics • The aim of ethical inquiries is not to know what goodness is, but ultimately to be good • What is goodness? – is an intermediate question or aim • To become a good person – is the ultimate aim Nicomachean Ethics • The good is that which all things seek • Every rational activity aims to realize some goal which is seen as good • There is also some goal in relation to human life as a whole—the supreme good • Supreme good – what it is that we say political science aims at and what is the highest of all goods achievable by action is happiness EUDAIMONIA  Eu – well  Daimõn – a kind of guiding spirit  Happiness – pertains to living well or doing well  Eudaimonia literally means “a fulfilled life” or “fulfilment”  Happiness or fulfilment is something final and selfsufficient and is the end of action  Everybody seeks happiness for its own sake

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EUDAIMONIA IS THE SUPREME GOOD  Eudaimonia satisfies 2 conditions to be a supreme good 1. It is sought for its own sake and for the sake of nothing else 2. It is by itself sufficient to make life “choice worthy and lacking nothing”. Meaning, it is not self-sufficient for the person, but for his family and everybody else.  The two competing views of Eudaimonia o Inclusive conception – conception of the supreme good as a life in which the best possible combination of specific goods is achieved o Dominant conception – conception of a life devoted as far as possible to the pursuit of a single specific good The ergon argument • Ergon argument – an argument from the function of human beings o The distinctive function of human being is the activity of the soul in accordance with reason, or not part from reason o It belongs to a good man to perform this rational activity well and finely, and each thing is completed well when it possesses its proper excellence o The human turns out to be activity of the soul in accordance with excellence External goods • Necessary for a fully worthwhile life. Examples include health and prosperity • A full account of eudaimonia is that it is a life of excellent rational activity “sufficiently equipped with the external foods, not for any chance period, but over one’s life as a whole • It is not the agent’s power to guarantee, unlike the rational activity. They are extra conditions which ones hope for Reason • Reason is unique to human beings , and this defines what is most important about the human being • Aside from natural biological functions & sensory functions, our specifically human natural function is the exercise of our reason • The exercise of reason can be theoretical or practical • Theoretical reason – to seek wisdom and truth • Practical reason – to seek the right action in our experience of living • Division of the soul

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Intellect – rational per se, theoretical reason Appetites – not rational per se, but derivatively rational

ARISTOTLE’S PERSPECTIVE ON VIRTUE  Virtue – is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, with the mean being relative to us and is determined by reason and by that reason by which man of practical wisdom should determine it  Virtue therefore, is a characteristic marked by choice, residing in the mean relative to us, a characteristic defined by reason and as the prudent person would define it  A good thing is one what does well whatever it characteristically does. What it characteristically does is that which distinguishes itself from others, that is, what it does that makes it what it is. The which makes a thing excel in what it characteristically does is a virtue. (Basically if its function is good and it is good in doing its function, then it is good)  A moral virtue is a Mean between two extremes.  In medio stat virtus – virtue lies in the mean  Virtue is a mean in so far as it aims at what is intermediate Clarifications about the golden mean 1. It is not a mathematical mean 2. It is not a precise mean but rather a mean relative to us Intellectual and moral virtues • Virtue, then, is twofold, intellectual and moral. Both the coming- into being and increase of intellectual virtue result mostly from teaching—hence it requires experience and time—whereas moral virtue is the result of habit, and so it is that moral virtue got its name [ethike] by a slight alteration of the term habit [ethos]. It is also clear, as a result, that none of the moral virtues are present in us by nature, since nothing that exists by nature is habituated to be other than it is. Intellectual virtues

ETHICS 1. Scientific knowledge (episteme) – knowledge of what is necessary and universal 2. Artistic or technical knowledge (techne) – knowledge of how to make things, or of how to develop a craft 3. Intuitive reason (nous) – the process that establishes the first principles of knowledge 4. Practical wisdom (phronesis) – the capacity to act in accordance with the good of humanity 5. Philosophic wisdom (Sophia) – combination of intuitive reason and scientific knowledge Moral virtues 1. Courage 2. Temperance 3. Gentleness 4. Modesty 5. Righteous 6. Indignation 7. Liberality 8. Magnificence 9. Proper ride 10. Honesty 11. Wittiness 12. Friendliness Actions with no intermediate are simply bad and there is no excellent way of doing them. The concept of the mean only applies to actions and dispositions that are not bad in and of themselves PHRONESIS  Prudence, practical wisdom  It is knowledge that deals with practical matters and not just with ideas  It determines or manages moral choices like determining the mean relative to the agent  Consider situations  Virtue of character results from habit. Virtues arise in us neither by nature nor against nature, but we are by nature able to acquire them, and reach our complete perfection through habit Developing a moral character 1. Moral training 2. Personal experience 3. By example 4. By figuring it out ourselves Phronesis & Sophia • Phronesis – excellence of practical intellect • Sophia – excellence of the theoretical intellect • Both are intrinsically valuable, but Sophia has higher intrinsic value than phronesis.

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Phronesis has an instrumental role in promoting Sophia Sophia is the best excellence attainable by humans closer to the divine

VIRTUES OF VIRTUE ETHICS  Virtue ethics is able to bring values, virtues into our ordinary moral discussions  Virtue ethics develops our character  It is about having practical wisdom, the ability to render appropriate moral judgement or decision on a particular situation according to general principles  Flexibility – is having disposition to be honest, but not always honest in all situations regardless of other circumstances  Virtue ethics also incorporates the values of consequentialism also CRITICISMS  There seems to be no accepted criteria for determining what a genuine virtue and what is not  Deciding what can be a virtue is a matter of personal opinion and can also be cultural  It seems to be a very imprecise moral theory  Virtues change over time or different across historical periods

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