Aristotelian Ethics

• Aristotlean Virtue Ethics

  Answers a different question than Kant or utilitarianism - instead of 'what should i do?' Aristotle seeks to answer 'what sort of person should i be
• Eudaimonia

  The good life for human beings

  • The good life for a human being must consist of something unique to human beings
• Human beings are rational animals and reason is their unique characteristic activity (ergon)

  • the good life (eudaimonia) is one full of actions chosen according to reason
• Virtues are character traits that enable us to act according to reason

  • The virtue is the middle point between a vice of deficiency and a vice of excess
  • Virtues are developed through habit and training
• Eudaimonia

  Translated as 'human flourishing'

  • Good lives - eudaimons
  • Good life for a good human being
  • Not just a good life in a moral sense but also a desirable, enjoyable and valuable life you'd want for yourself
  • A property of someone's life taken as a whole
  • Good people sometimes do bad things and vice versa
  • Aristotle says that eudaimonia is a final end
  • Intrinsically valuable and not used as a means to achieve a goal as it is the end goal
• Arête, ergon and virtue

  Ergon: the function/characteristic of a thing

  Arête: property/virtue that enables a thing to achieve its ergon

  • ie a knifes ergon is to cut things and a good knife has the arête of sharpness because this enables it to cut things well
• Arête, Ergon and Virtue

  Aristotle argues that eudaimonia must consist of something unique to humans

  • ergon of humans is to use reason
  • reason is what makes us unique from animals and everything else
  • Humans always choose actions for some reason good or bad
  • Aristotle says that eudaimonia is one full of actions chosen according to good reason
• Arête, ergon and virtue

  Virtues are character traits that enable us to choose our actions according to good reason

  • The arête of virtues help humans fulfill their ergon which is to choose actions according to reason
  • They are part of what we are and a virtuous character changes over time
• The doctrine of the mean

  Also called the golden mean

  • the doctrine of the mean says that virtues are intermediate or average (the mean) between two extremes
  • If you never stand up for yourself then you are cowardly (vice of deficiency) but it you pick fights for seemingly no reason then you are reckless (vice of excess)
  • The correct and virtuous way to act is somewhere in between these two extremes
• Vices and Virtues examples

  Vice of deficiency: cowardice, shyness, stingy, self-denial, surly

  Virtue: courage, modesty, liberal, temperance, friendly

  Vice of Excess: recklessness, shameless, wasteful, self-indulgence, obsequious
• Vices and Virtues

  Virtues are character traits, a good-tempered character in general doesn't mean you should be good-tempered in every situation

  • There are times when anger is the virtuous response
  • A virtuous character is not one that never feels angry or other extremes of emotions but one whos character allows them to feel these emotions when it is appropriate to do so
• Voluntary action and moral responsibility

  Aristotle (like Kant) values freedom of choice

  • As with other moral theories there is a system for practical action and a place for moral responsibility
  • Key part of Aristotles system is choice - the choice to self-assess out vices and virtues and the choice to act upon them
  • good guide on whether to place moral blame or not
• Aristotle's key three areas that motivate certain actions

  • Voluntary action - deliberately set out a course of action in full awareness of what your doing
  • Force - you can be forced into a course of action by other moral agents
  • Ignorance- setting out a course of action because you arent aware of all of the facts
• Voluntary action

  • if you have all the facts when you do a 'bad' deed, then you are wholly morally responsible
• Force

  • if you are forced by some other moral agent then you are acting under compulsion and moral responsibility is mixed
• Ignorance

  • you may proceed in actions without full possession of the facts
  • oedipus - orphaned and ended up killing his father and marrying his mother unknowingly
  • responsibility is mixed
• Strengths of Aristotlean Virtue Ethics

  • Applicable to many situations, dilemmas and circumstances
  • able to appreciate a broad range of moral considerations, (ie not just intentions and consequences)
  • its intuitive and operates in a way usual moral reasoning operates
  • Doesnt instruct counter-intuitive recommendations like the colosseum (consequentialism) or axe-murderer example (kantian ethics)
  • encourages self improvement and personal growth
• Issues with Aristotlean Virtue Ethics

  1. Virtue ethics may not provide clear enough guidance
  2. Clashing/ competing virtues
  3. circularity in defining virtuous acts and people
  4. difference between moral good and individual good
  5. elitism
• 1. Virtue ethics may not provide clear enough guidance

  • Aristotle describes virtues as two extremes and that this varies depending on the situation
  • ex Aristotle would say its correct to act angrily sometimes but doesn't specify and there's no guide of how angry you can get before a virtue becomes a vice
  • Kant and Bentham have their own calculus' but Aristotle has no criteria to judge whether one course of action is better than another
  • doctrine of mean gives no actual quantities
• 1. Virtue ethics may not provide enough guidance: possible response

  • Could argue that virtue theory was never meant to provide a set of rules how to act
  • life is complex and the reason to develop practical wisdom is so one can act virtuously in varied situations
  • reflection is important in deciding how to act and just because there isn't a specific course of action does not mean it provides no guidance
• 2. Circularity

  • Aristotle defines virtuous acts and virtuous people in terms of each other which doesn't say much
  • does nothing to say what a virtuous person or act actually is