In the book Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle summarizes how ethics can be used to determine the best way for an individual to achieve happiness. After reading the text, there were a couple of themes that stood out the most to me. Happiness is a choice and with this happiness, friends are needed most of all.…
not teaching them better. While one might have been raised to know the difference between the right and wrong, who the person begins to associate himself with could change his/ her moral character. In The Nicomachean Ethics without virtues one can not be happy so a life lived making morally wrong decisions is a life that will not see happiness according to Aristotle. An example that best proves Aristotle’s thinking is one of a man losing his dog at a local park. The man searches all over for his dog, but his dog is nowhere to be seen. After hours of searching the man returns home. The dog did in fact run away, but a young mom and her two daughters stopped the dog before it can go any further. Attempting to find who the owner of the dog is,…
To what extent do modern virtue ethics address the weaknesses of Aristotle’s teaching on virtues? (35)…
Aristotle accepts the individual choices and experiences of people and was more concerned with virtue ethics. He doesn't have an idea of free will. Along with Socrates, Aristotle believes that someone may know what the best outcome is and still do wrong, but draws the line between happiness and moral virtue. This includes depression and unhappiness. The world has moral meaning. He explains that moral virtue does not mean the end of life. His theory is that happiness is the end of life, which comes together with reason. Virtue is a state of personality that has to do with someone’s choice.…
It is true that each author speaks virtues that are common to both the medieval and ancient times. Aristotle being so cunning during his era introduces virtue or excellence consisting of two parts moral and intellectual which can be taught, it is not possible to change what is naturally imprinted. Moral education is tangible through habits and experiences. Virtue can be achieved, not easily; it takes more than one characteristic to meet it.…
C. in Athens, Greece, it focuses primarily on personal character and the development of certain virtuous character traits. To act well in various circumstances by doing the right thing is the center focus of a person’s character traits as in their self-control, courage, wisdom, honesty and respect that makes the person what they are over time. This life of a virtuously ethical person emphasizes achieving human excellence by always doing the right thing, the mere meaning of virtue from both the Latin and Greek culture means “excellence”, to be a model citizen and is founded on the assumption that the purpose of life was to achieve happiness and fulfillment. Aristotle though, has the most prolific virtue ethics theory, he held that understanding the meaning of a virtue was necessary but not sufficient to make one virtuous and that there are many specific virtues: intellectual, and moral, whereas moral virtues are those we would need in order to conduct affairs in daily life such as self-control, courage, gentleness and wittiness. Intellectual virtue reflects what is unique and important about human nature, human reasoning and rationality, calmness, wisdom and knowledge to name a few. Virtue ethics is the embodiment of being all you can be by making the most of our talents and…
Aristotle’s argument in virtue ethics is based on an appeal to the notion of an objective account of “the good” for human beings and happiness. “The good” is so important that every good soul takes it as the end. On the other hand, it is also so hard to grasp what are “the good”, so that people seem to be able to intuitively feel it exists but cannot establish a solid belief in it. If one does not know what are “good”, then naturally they will not be able to identify other things that have goodness.…
A married couple, both addicted to drugs, is unable to care for their infant daughter. She is taken from them by court order and placed in a foster home. The years pass. She comes to regard her foster parents as her real parents. They love her as they would their own daughter. When the child is 9 years old, the natural parents, rehabilitated from drugs, begin court action to regain custody. The case is decided in their favor. The child is returned to them, against her will. Do ethics support the law in this case? Discuss…
In this essay, with all the information I have gathered from the readings and lectures, I will be discussing an essential concept of Aristotle’s virtue ethics; his “doctrine of the mean”. I will provide a detailed explanation of Aristotle’s mean, how it is meant to be applied when making decisions, provide arguments from various sources that agree with the main concept of the “doctrine of the mean” and with all of the information gathered, I will prove that this doctrine is extremely useful to people when it comes to making moral decisions in life.…
There are various theories of ethics, like deontology, utilitarianism, casuist and virtue just to name a few. The theory of virtue is quite interesting; it is a theory that according to Principles and Theories (2002, February 17) Retrieved September 29, 2015, is based on judging a person’s character rather than their actions. The theory of virtue is different from other theories in the sense that it is the only one that judges upon character so traits such as integrity, kindness, honesty, morality, and dignity are deemed right and just. These traits also so happen to be some that I find very important to have in my personal relationships. In time there have been philosophers that also stated differences between theories. Aristotle for example, according to Aristotle's Ethics (2001, April 16) Retrieved September 29, 2015, is known for discovering the difference between intellectual and moral values by stating that one is learned and another is acted out naturally as what feels right.…
Aristotle's ethical theory is known as virtue ethics because at the centre of his description of the good, which are the virtues which shape human character and human behaviour. However, this good human life is one lived in harmony and cooperation with other people, since Aristotle saw people as not only rational beings but as also social beings too.…
Finally I argue that the evidence produced and discussed at length within the thesis provides abundant evidence for strong similarities in Aristotle and Confucius’s outlooks concerning ethics. Emerging from the point that both of their works can be classified as examples of virtue ethics and building upon the numerous areas of convergence between them too it is clear that both Aristotelian and Confucian virtue ethics can be discussed in terms with each other and are not exclusionary of the ideas or concepts, nor the internal workings, of the other. With this, then, two very different cultural and historical contexts are shown to be able to give rise to ethical systems which are in no way mutually unintelligible despite not having all the same…
1. Why are Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle usually considered to be the founders of Western philosophical ethics?…
Unlike deontology or utilitarianism which are action-based moral theory, virtue ethics is a character-centric moral theory. Deontology and utilitarianism give absolute rule as to how agent ought to act in any situations - deontology argues that actions should be driven by duty and utilitarians put the maximization of utility above all else. Virtue ethics, due to its focus on the agent rather than the actions, allows for more flexibility as to how an individual ought to act. The main value of virtue ethics is its focus on the aim towards the self-improvement of the agent. Aristotle states that individuals become virtuous by committing virtuous actions - virtue ethics therefore purports to letting individuals improve on themselves. Virtue ethics allows individuals to make decisions based on their own character rather than on clearly defined rules. Unlike utilitarianism, where the actions one ought to do are routinized and almost machinelike, virtue ethics provides a more diverse course of action to…
Virtue is a broad term used in ethics, it identifies with the moral character of a person where some other ethic theories focus on duties and roles or the consequences of an action. Virtue ethics has been broken down into three main theories: eudaimonism, agent-based theories, and the ethics of care. Eudaimonism is based on human flourishing or a person achieving their purpose well. An agent-based theory are based on what other people think are admirable traits in people that are thought to be common-sense intuitions. The third type is ethics of care which came from the feminist thinkers, it challenged the “idea that ethics should focus solely on justice and autonomy; it argues that more feminine traits, such as caring and nurturing, should also be considered” (Athanassoulis, N. (n.d.). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.).…