Virtue Ethics

• Virtue is a stable disposition to act and feel according to some ideal or model of excellence. It is a deeply embedded character trait that can affect actions in countless situations.
• 2 types of Virtue:

  1. Intellectual Virtue
  2. Moral Virtue
• Intellectual virtues include wisdom, prudence, rationality, and the like. Aristotle believes that this type of virtue can be taught, just as logic and mathematics can be taught.
• Moral virtues include fairness, benevolence, honesty , loyalty, conscientiousness, and courage. Aristotle believes that this type of virtue can be learned only through practice. He states that moral virtue comes about as a result of habit.
• Golden mean is Aristotle's notion of virtue as a balance between two behavioral extremes.
• A moral virtue is the midpoint between excess and deficit.
• For Aristotle, the virtuous and happy life is a life of moderation in all things.
• Telos - end, purpose, or goal>

  Aristotle stated that everything has a telos.
• Three Kinds of Telos according to Aristotle:

  1. Instrumental Ends
  2. Final Ends
  3. Supreme Ends
• Instrumental Ends - money to be able to buy goods and goods in return to satisfy a person's hunger
• Final ends - those at the end of the chain of the cause and effect. such as the satisfaction of hunger, with reference to instrumental ends
• Supreme ends - those that are final or chosen for their own sake and nothing else.
• Eudaimonia meaning "happiness" or "flourishing" is the full realization of the good life. According to Aristotle, this is the true goal of humans--their greatest good.
• To achieve eudaimonia, human beings must fulfill the function that is natural and distinctive to them: living fully in accordance with reason
• The life of reason entails a life of virtue because the virtues themselves are rational modes of behaving.
• Virtue Ethics - a theory of morality that makes virtue the central concern
• Eudaimonia - Happiness or fourishing