Virtue Ethics

Question 1

What is VE?

Answer 1

• Aristotle
• Character based
• States that we should develop virtues to reach Eudaimonia or ‘human flourishing’.
• Aristotle rejects happiness from pleasure e.g., sex, as even cattle can experience them.
• Rejects seekers of honour or wealth as they can be easily lost which was applicable as Aristotle mostly convened with members of the upper classes and politicians.
• The function argument states that we should do good to reach this Eudaimonia.
• Aristotle says that we do this by practising intellectual virtues to develop our rational soul.
• There are two souls, rational which is developed through practicing intellectual virtues, and the non-rational soul which is developed through practicing character-based virtues.
• Aristotle says that by developing this rational soul we can reach the eudaimonia of theoria.
• Golden mean, middle ground between two vices of deficiency and excess.
• Different virtues in the golden mean such as courage with excess being bashfulness and deficiency being cowardness, relevant to his time in battle.
• Another prevalent example being friendship which ‘holds cities together and lawmakers are more serious about it than justice’.
• Subordinate aim is something which helps to reach a superior aim.
• For example, doing well in school to get a good job to make lots of money is the subordinate aim to the superior aim of being happy.
• Aristotle states that the overall superior aim should be Eudaimonia.

Question 2

What are the strengths of VE?

Answer 2

• Provides clear guidance using the golden mean
• Flexible, golden mean allows for extreme courage in some situations and restraint in others
• Person centred.

Question 3

What are the weaknesses of VE?

Answer 3

• What happens when virtues conflict? Pojman comments, ‘virtue ethics has the problem of application’.
• Religious objections, relies too heavily on individual, ignores rules of church.
• Vague, no single overarching principle.