Virtue Ethics - created from Mind Map

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polis

Golden Mean

Other Philosophers

Eudaimonia

For Aristotle, ethics was not just about promoting the good if the individual but that of the community. He said that humans are 'political animals'.

This is something that Aristotle developed to allow a balance to be found between two vices: vice of excess and vice of deficiency. What is found in between - at the mean - is the ideal virtue.

Examples:

cowardice - courage - rashness

unambitiousness - pride - boastfulness

Keown - Keown claims that Virtue Ethics is a middle way between deontology and untilitarianism

Slote - a modern Virtue ethicist. 1. he stressed the importance of intention behind the virtues. 2. "eudaimonia is the idea that no trait of character counts as a virtue unless it serves the interest, promotes the overall well-being, of the virtuous individual"

Guthrie - Eudaimonia is "the quality of excellence towards which we strive in our daily conduct in society"

Eudaimonia means 'highest good' and Aristotle describes it as 'human flourishing'