Virtue Ethics

Virtue Ethics

1. Virtuous all the time

   • Even when he sleeps, because he has cultivated the habit of virtue

2. Golden Mean

   • Right way to act
   • The perfect balance between 2 extremes
   • Discovered by the intellect
     • Leads to genuine practical wisdom (Phronesis) & moral wisdom
     • Vices of deficiency & vices of excess
     • Between cowardice & foolhardiness = courage

3. Act out of desire, not duty

   • Deriving satisfaction from doing the right thing
   • Identified the right thing to do
     • Not because they ought/want to do so
   • Not for any external reasons/goals
   • Good samaritan example

4. Moral Virtues

   • Despite man's intellectual pursuit, still has to live practically in the world
   • Qualities of character attained by habit/cultivation
     • Those that lead to a good life
       • The person who aims to cultivate these qualities is maximising their potential for a happy life
         • A quality of happiness described as..
   • 12
     • Courage
     • Temperance
     • Liberty
     • Magnificence

5. Eudaimonia

   • Involved in being happy & living well
   • Of intrinsic value & not as a means to an end
   • Should be desired for its own sake
     • Not only for the individual, but also for the society for which they are a member

6. Every action is directed towards an aim

   • Superior Aims
     • Includes contemplating philosophy
   • Subordinate Aims
     • Seeking personal preferences

7. Practice

   • Must be a continuous attempt
     • Involves an awareness of the circumstances in which he acts
       • PRUDENCE
         • Must not only desire to do good, must know when & how

8. Intellectual Virtues

   • The end or purpose of man is rational thought
   • His highest good is found here
   • Qualities of the mind
     • Developed through instruction

9. Role Models

   • The good person should learn from these
   • Train & exercise until it becomes an automatic way of living & behaving
     • Part of his character
     • Can exercise without conscious will/effort

10. Revival

    • Elizabeth Anscombe
    • Richard Taylor
    • Phillipa Foot
    • Alastair McIntyre
    • James F. Keenan