Insufficient guidance

• Can virtue ethics give sufficient guidance on how to act?

  • does not tell us the right thing to do
  • Tells us what is inbetween excess and deficiency - the specific virtue
  • it is unclear what that virtue is
  • Aristotle intellectual judgement determines whats good but if one does not have experience or is not a good person, how can intellectual judgement be developed?
• Defense of virtue ethics giving sufficient guidance

  Aristotle - knowledge of good is affected by character - only a truly depraved person does not know some form of good or bad. Good is learnt in degrees - this requires experience

  Julia Annas - the right thing is dependent on culture or development - there cannot be an ethical guidebook - becoming virtuous requires experience and practice