Virtue Ethics Flashcards
1
Q
What is VE?
A
- Aristotle
- Character based
- States that we should develop virtues to reach Eudaimonia or ‘human flourishing’.
- Aristotle rejects happiness from pleasure e.g., sex, as even cattle can experience them.
- Rejects seekers of honour or wealth as they can be easily lost which was applicable as Aristotle mostly convened with members of the upper classes and politicians.
- The function argument states that we should do good to reach this Eudaimonia.
- Aristotle says that we do this by practising intellectual virtues to develop our rational soul.
- There are two souls, rational which is developed through practicing intellectual virtues, and the non-rational soul which is developed through practicing character-based virtues.
- Aristotle says that by developing this rational soul we can reach the eudaimonia of theoria.
- Golden mean, middle ground between two vices of deficiency and excess.
- Different virtues in the golden mean such as courage with excess being bashfulness and deficiency being cowardness, relevant to his time in battle.
- Another prevalent example being friendship which ‘holds cities together and lawmakers are more serious about it than justice’.
- Subordinate aim is something which helps to reach a superior aim.
- For example, doing well in school to get a good job to make lots of money is the subordinate aim to the superior aim of being happy.
- Aristotle states that the overall superior aim should be Eudaimonia.
2
Q
What are the strengths of VE?
A
- Provides clear guidance using the golden mean
- Flexible, golden mean allows for extreme courage in some situations and restraint in others
- Person centred.
3
Q
What are the weaknesses of VE?
A
- What happens when virtues conflict? Pojman comments, ‘virtue ethics has the problem of application’.
- Religious objections, relies too heavily on individual, ignores rules of church.
- Vague, no single overarching principle.