Virtue ethics Flashcards
Explain what Aristotle means by eudaimonia
Often translated as ‘flourishing’, achieving a state of eudaimonia is understood as living the best life you can. According to Aristotle, eudaimonia is not a subjective nor psychological state, but an objective quality of someone’s life as a whole. It is the final end for human beings.
Explain what is meant by eudaimonia as the final end
Eudaimonia (‘flourishing’) is the highest good for humans as it is what all humans are striving for. Unlike things such as wealth, pleasure and honour, which are all means to an end, eudaimonia is an end in itself.
Explain the relationship between eudaimonia and pleasure
Eudaimonia means to flourish as a human being. Pleasure is an important part of eudaimonia but it is not “the good”. Whilst pleasure is the ultimate good for animals, Aristotle argued that humans, as rational beings, need more than pleasure to achieve eudaimonia. To excessively indulge in pleasure is a vice as is to reject it all together. Pleasure can help us to develop virtues, enabling us to achieve eudaimonia, as when we get pleasure from being virtuous, we are more likely to habituate that virtue.
Explain Aristotle’s account of virtues and vices
Virtue (Greek = arete, literally meaning “excellence”) is a disposition or character trait possessed by good people. Disposition is not a one-off act - you have a kind disposition if you are habitually kind. It is something you develop and become skilful at. It has a high social or moral value eg courage, wisdom. Vices (kakia) are dispositions possessed by “vicious” people, such as greed.
Explain the function argument
The function argument is used by Aristotle to show that eudaimonia is only achieved through exercising our reason. It can be set out as such:
P1: Everything must have a distinctive function (ergon)
P2: Therefore, humans must have a distinctive function
P3: Our function cannot be nutritive (shared with plants) or sensitive (shared with animals) as these are not distinctive to humans. Being guided by reason, however, is distinctive to humans
C1: The distinctive function of humans is to reason
P4: X is good if it fulfils its function well
P5: X fulfils its functions well if it has the right virtues (e.g. a tin opener will perform its function well if it is sharp)
P6: A human fulfils their function well if they reason well
P7: Eudaimonia is reached by living a virtuous life
C2: Therefore, for a human to reach eudaimonia, they should use their reason to live virtuously
Explain the role of education/habituation in developing a moral character
Nobody is born virtuous; rather, we have the capacity to develop virtuous character traits over time (similarly to learning how to play an instrument). We learn virtues from role models, but it is a gradual process to habituate them. We become virtuous by practicing virtuous actions (as we would practice playing an instrument) until the actions become fixed dispositions. But a virtue is more than a habit (which we can do without thought), since virtue requires reasoning when we act.
Outline the skill analogy
Aristotle compares developing a virtue with learning a skill. We are not born with a skill, but have the capacity to learn and develop (for example, we can only learn the harp by first playing a harp, similarly to how we can only become courageous by doing courageous acts). In order to habituate virtue, we must practice performing virtuous acts until they become fixed dispositions.
Outline the importance of feelings in virtue ethics
Aristotle gives a central place to feelings in his moral theory. All our actions are a display of some emotion, such as confidence or fear, for example. Virtue means expressing the appropriate amount of these feelings, neither too much or too little but ‘in the mean’. Furthermore, a virtuous person has no inner conflict; they don’t have to overcome their feelings to do the right thing. For example, a person may experience inner conflict if they offer someone else the biggest slice of cake (because they think it is the right thing to do) but they actually wanted it for themselves. A virtuous person would not experience this inner conflict.
Outline the doctrine of the mean
Some traits of character are vices (kakia) - these can be of deficiency or excess. We should avoid these vices and aim for the mean, the virtue. The mean means that you “feel or act towards the right person to the right extent at the right time for the right reason in the right way”. Being a virtuous person means that you can use phronesis to work out what the mean/right action is in each situation. For example, in a particular situation, the mean may be between being cowardly or being reckless.
What does Aristotle mean by a voluntary action?
A voluntary action is one that we intend to do, with full knowledge of what we are doing. We can be held morally responsible for these actions, and they contribute to our moral character and virtues. For example, if we freely choose to push somebody over, this is a voluntary action, and we are morally responsible for this.
What does Aristotle mean by an involuntary action?
These are actions which we do but which we have no control over. They are contrary to intention and the result of compulsion - due to a physical or psychological external force. (Aristotle gives an example of a ship being blown off course by winds - the captain of the ship cannot be held accountable for this). These actions tell us nothing about whether a person is virtuous or not. as they have not chosen to do them. These actions are not praiseworthy nor blameworthy as the person had no choice but to do them.
What does Aristotle mean by a non-voluntary action?
A non-voluntary action is one that it unintended due to ignorance of the situation. An example of this is the Greek tragic hero Oedipus unknowingly killed his father and married his own mother. If there is regret and we wish we had acted differently, then we are not morally blameworthy. If there is no regret and we would not have acted differently, then we are morally blameworthy.
Explain the relationship between virtues, actions and reasons
Our virtues are dispositions built up from voluntary actions. But not all voluntary actions are relevant to judgement of a moral character (for example, actions done by young children). Voluntary actions relevant to virtue are chosen as a result of reasoned decision making (for example, choosing to help somebody because you used reason to ascertain that it was the right thing to do). Therefore, reason is crucial in judgements of the virtue of a moral character.
Explain the role of practical wisdom
Aristotelean virtue ethics give us no simple rules on how to behave. Instead, virtue ethics requires us to develop practical reasoning skills to enable us to make the right decision in each situation we encounter. These include the ability to deliberate, understanding of our situation and the ability to form a judgement on what we need to do. Cumulatively, these skills make up our phronesis (practical wisdom) which is key to making the best decisions to be able to achieve eudaimonia.
Explain the issue of circularity in virtue ethics
Aristotle tells us that a virtuous act is one done by a virtuous person. He then defines a virtuous person as someone who does virtuous acts in a particular situation. Assuming we do not already know what a virtuous act is, or what constitutes a virtuous person, an issue arises that we are not left any clearer about the definitions he provides. The circularity of definition within virtue ethics is best demonstrated as such: (diagram)
