CHAPTER 5

• At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to describe Aristotle's ethical points, largely on the concept of happiness, virtue, telos, and good habit
• At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to use Aristotelian ethical frameworks or principles to analyze moral experiences
• The formulation of Virtue Ethics is primarily grounded in the Greeks tradition, which demonstrates theories essential for moral development not only to the Westerners but also to the Easterners (Orientals) and to the entire morally capacitated beings in the world
• The Greeks overshadowed Confucius and dominated in the development of Western moral philosophy until the Enlightenment era
• Virtue ethics


  An approach to ethics that emphasizes the person's character in moral thinking
• Virtue ethics deals with broader queries like

  • What kind of life should I live?
  • What is the good life?
  • How can I be consistent in my moral actions?
• At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to explain Aristotelian virtue ethics or Eudaimonism as different from Ethics of Care and Agent-based Theories
• Consequentialism holds that choices are to be morally assessed solely by the situation or consequences they bring about
• Deontology emphasizes man's duty and obligation to act morally
• Virtue ethics is not an action-based ethics (as in the case of deontology and consequentialism), but a person-based one
• Virtue has become a compounding concept in ethics in the modern times not only due to the Greek forefathers, namely, Socrates, Plato and, more particularly, Aristotle, but also from its roots in a more ancient Chinese philosophy of Confucius
• At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to distinguish virtue ethics from deontology and consequentialism
• Deontology or rule-based ethics was popularized by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) during the Enlightenment era
• Practical wisdom


  A central category in Aristotelian ethics that helps individuals become virtuous
• Consequentialism's main focus is on the consequences of one's action as the definitive basis for the rightness or wrongness of her judgment
• In virtue ethics, there are no universal principles that oblige the person to act because it is his duty to act or because the situation calls him to render good consequence
• Main strands of virtue ethics

  • Ethics of Care
  • Agent-Based Theories
  • Eudaimonism
• The Ethics of Care holds the idea that a moral action centers on social and environmental relationships in which care or kindness is considered as the main virtue
• Distinctive approaches in ethics

  • Deontological approach
  • Consequentialist approach
• What virtue ethics provides in attaining the good are simply ideal behaviors, traits, and characters
• Virtue ethics emphasizes the person's practical moral development which is the key to the attainment of authentic happiness
• Michael Slote: '"caring is the primary virtue and that a morality"'
• Virtue ethics lays emphasis on the role that character and virtue play in moral philosophy, rather than those which consider deliberate actions based on duty or on anticipated good consequences
• Virtue ethics does not emphasize the moral agent's choice as to what course of action she has to pursue
• In any moral situations, virtue ethics does not provide the moral agent specific principles to guide her actions
• At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to articulate the meaning and nature of virtue ethics
• Eudaimonism comes from the Greek word Eudaimonia, which can be translated as happiness, well-being, or the good life
• Eudaimonism aims for eternal goodness rather than depending on the contingent recurrence of certain actions
• Agent-Based Theories are unitary normative theories where the status of actions depends entirely on the moral status of an agent's motives and character traits
• To enhance moral virtue, Aristotle believed in the need for phronesis or practical wisdom to resolve ethical problems
• Ethics of care suggests that "care" is a central category in determining the moral worth of human actions
• Ethics of care examines moral practices and values, focusing on moral development through the reformation of practices rather than the mere use of reason from abstract rules
• Aristotle's ethics focus on the concept of Eudaimonia or happiness, emphasizing moral principles of conduct for attaining the "good life"
• Aristotle's ethics were first written in Eudemian Ethics, which later developed into Nichomachean Ethics
• Virtue ethics, in general, does not particularly deal with the rightness or wrongness of specific actions but guides the moral agent in seeking the "good"
• Slote (2001: 38): 'An act is morally acceptable if and only if it comes from good or virtuous motivation involving benevolence or caring (about the well-being of others) or at least doesn't come from bad or inferior motivation involving malice or indifference to humanity'
• Michael Slote (1983: 36): 'caring is the primary virtue and that a morality based on the motive of caring can offer a general account of right and wrong action'
• Aristotle's ethics emphasize the notions of virtue, telos, and good habit in relation to happiness
• For Aristotle, happiness or the good life is the highest goal of man, achievable through a lifetime of actively exercising moral virtues or "arete"
• Aristotle's ethics


  • Virtue, telos, good habit in relation to happiness