Virtue Ethics – what it is (AO1 material) • Traced back to the philosopher Aristotle‚ who rejected Plato’s metaphysical account of goodness as a ‘thing in itself’. Aristotle thought that goodness is natural and psychological: just a part of being human. • Virtue Ethics makes ethical behaviour into the aim (telos) of life. • Aristotle puts forward ‘aretaic ethics’ (from the Greek arête – ‘excellence’)‚ stating that developing an excellent character is all-important‚ rather than following a set
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Virtue Ethics: Character-Based Virtues Aristotle and Plato Virtue ethics is grounded in “character traits”. We all have by nature the potential to be moral persons‚ but we need to practice the virtues‚ to cultivate them. Ex. a medical doctor should cultivate virtues such as: compassion‚ discernment‚ trustworthiness‚ integrity‚ benevolence and non-malevolence Kinds of virtues: 1) intellectual (wisdom‚ understanding etc) 2) moral (temperance‚ patience‚ courage etc) An individual
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Retributivism and utilitarianism are two opposing ways of approaching punishment. The retributive view of punishment is backward-looking‚ while the utilitarian view is forward-looking. Retributivism pays more attention to the crime itself and what amends need to be made. Typically this results in harsher punishments. Immanuel Kant and Michael Davis both advocate for this system in their articles. However‚ they purposefully disregard how a punishment could affect society. For example‚ punishments
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of subjects ranging from science to politics and is widely recognized as one of the greatest philosophers of all time. One of his most important contributions to the study of humanities is his exploration and definition of moral virtue. In his book‚ The Nicomachean Ethics‚ Aristotle explains different views about the nature of life in order to allow the reader to find what the main function of life is and how to successfully perform that function. For example‚ Aristotle states in his first book
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Virtue Theory The Virtue Theory is one of the three main theories in normative ethics‚ which emphasizes virtues in determining moral character and what is good. It focuses on what makes a good person‚ rather than what makes a good action. In other words‚ The Virtue Theory is an agent-based approach to ethics‚ which asks this question about being good: “What kind of person should I be?” This is in contrast to the other two approaches‚ Utilitarianism and Kantanism‚ which ask this question concerning
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Fried Pataters Mr. Hahn Phil 2310 10 May 2010 Virtue Ethics and Ethics of Care Aristotle and Rita Manning both have different theories when it comes to ethics. Aristotle uses virtue ethics to answer questions about morality whereas Manning uses what is called ethics of caring to do the same thing. Virtue ethics claims people’s actions aim towards the highest good of happiness. From happiness‚ moral virtue stems from reasons governing the desires of the soul. Manning on the other hand believes
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deontological vs. utilitarian ethics Kant believed that morality is dependent upon reason‚ that to act rationally was the same as acting morally. He placed a high value upon duty in determining the moral worth of an action. Kant’s deontological ethics is essentially an ethics of duty or obligation. As such‚ he claims that the moral worth of an action depends solely on whether or not it was done exclusively from a sense of duty. If an act is done simply because one is so inclined‚ the act has no
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The concept of ethics acts as the foundation for the transcendental world. Ethics can be referred to a set of principles by which people live by. The virtue of ethics drives each individual’s belief system. Such like doctors operate under a code of ethics‚ every person acquires some type of guidelines that they choose to live by. As ethics presents itself as theoretical study amongst philosophers‚ there are several questions that continue to be discussed. How should people behave? How should people
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sell back their cars. Some could argue that Volkswagen only acted illegally and not immorally as well. In the paper‚ I will be arguing that Volkswagen acted illegally and immorally based on Kantian ethics. Kantian ethics is an example of a deontological moral theory. Deontological is an ethical theory that uses rules to differentiate right from wrong. What’s right or wrong of an action is not based on its consequences but
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The theory behind utilitarianism is that one’s actions are right if it promotes happiness or pleasure and wrong if it does not promote happiness or pleasure. The main point to this theory is the principle of utility that states “according to which actions should be chosen that bring about the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people.” (Palmer) Jeremy Bentham gave essentially utilitarianism its name and brought more attention to it than those before him. Bentham came up with
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