Virtue Ethics

• cardinal virtues

  
  

  • Joe - Justice
  • Poole - Prudence
  • Teaches - Temperance
  • Children - courage
• "in justice is every virtue summed up"
• virtue

  virtue ethics centres around virtue, you should act virtuously to achieve eudaimonia (life long flourishing happiness).
• agent centric

  perform good actions because they lead to good habit forming behaviour, developing you as a moral agent. become a better person and society will benefit.
• doctrine of the mean

  virtue is found between the vices of deficiency (too little of something) and vices of excess (too much), the golden mean is somewhere in the middle. eg for courage the deficiency is cowardice and the excess is rashness.
• when the mean becomes the extreme

  there are situations where virtuous amount doesnt lie between the two vices and is either none or all, like the right amount of rape is none ever.
• hierarchy of souls

  plants -> animals -> humans on top!
• hierarchy of souls

  plants- vegetative, have nutrition and growth
• hierarchy of souls

  animals- sensitive, have nutrition and growth as well as movement thought and sense perception
• hierarchy of souls

  humans- rational, has eveything previously mentioned (nurtrition, growth, movement, sense perception, thought) as well as reason
• virtuous role models

  aristotle suggests to act virtuously you can follow virtuous role models lead and act accordingly. its unclear how you decide who is acting virtuously without comparing them to another virtuous role model which presents the problem of circular reasoning
• modern virtue ethicist foot and courageous criminals

  argues virtues are only virtuous if correctly used to bring a good outcome. so no courageous bank robbers, dispelling the courageous criminal criticism to virtue ethics.

  a response to this could be to suggest this is too teleological to fit virtue ethics which is character based
• modern virtue ethicist hursthouse

  argues against the idea virtue ethics doesn't provide guidance to solve problems, says it assists practical reasoning to help the agent better respond to dilemmas in a virtuous way.
• modern virtue ethicist McIntyre

  argues ancient virtues aren't relevant anymore due to time changing culture
• modern virtue ethicist slote

  her version is agent based rather than centric. morality is based on motive and character whereas aristotles focuses on inner life. describes virtue as the balance between caring for others close to you and people in general.
• strengths

  flexible and sophisticated
• Cardinal virtue justice

  making fair, the redistribution of gain and loss, "In justice is all virtues"
• Cardinal virtue courage

  bravery
• cardinal virtue temperence

  self control, moderation, restraint
• cardinal virtue prudence

  caution, consideration, practical wisdom
• An ethical theory put forward by Aristotle which focuses on the virtue and character of the individual rather than on individual actions.