Virtue Ethics
Summary
Aristotle and virtue
Aristotle starts with the assumption that everyone wants to live ‘the good life’ – Eudaimonia.
Aristotle says that Eudaimonia is the highest good because it is sought for its own sake and nothing else i.e. justice is sought because it leads to the good life.
Aristotle identified three forms of happiness:
Aristotle disliked people who sought only a life of enjoyment of pleasure: “The many, the most vulgar, seemingly conceive the good and happiness as pleasure, and hence they also like the life of gratification. Here they appear completely slavish, since the life they decide on is a life for grazing animals.”
The best and happiest life, according to Aristotle, involved living well in a community or society, respecting both other people’s and your own interests.
Since, a person was primarily a part of a group (e.g. family, household, village), the well being of the group was far more important than that of a single member. This is why politicians should study ethics.
For those not suited to a life of complete contemplation, friendship becomes that perfect forum to exercise moral virtues. Morality finds expression in friendship.
Plato believed that the final goal was the ‘Form of the Good’, but was transcendent. Aristotle disagreed and said that goodness is goodness and not merely a pale reflection. “Good itself will be no more good by being eternal; for a white thing is not whiter if it lasts a long time than if it lasts a day.”
Aristotle said that the best way for people to achieve Eudaimonia was to develop and exercise those qualities that are most productive for living in society. Extremes of character are unhelpful in society (e.g. timid or assertive people cause problems). For Aristotle, virtue was to be found in the ‘Golden Mean’: the right balance between extremes. Each of the extremes he called ‘vice’ and the mean he called ‘virtue’.
Every person should work to develop his own character, trying to make a habit out of virtue. Soon, good actions will automatically follow, e.g. a good person will make good decisions.
Future generations can then be taught goodness from their elders since virtue should be taught by example rather than through a set of rules.
Aristotle identified two types of virtue:
Aristotle believed that virtue was not something we are born with – we are not inherently good or bad, we learn them through habit.
Virtue is acquired by doing so we should follow the examples of virtuous people such as Socrates, Jesus, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela.
The role of reason
Aristotle made a distinction between form and material substance. What makes you human is not the individual parts of flesh but the overall way in which the material is organised in your body. However, the ‘form’ of the body is more than just what the physical body is – it is all that a person is. Aristotle said that the form of the human was the soul – and so was the meaning and purposeful direction of one’s life. He then said that the quality that sets humankind apart was reason, and is the supreme human virtue.
Reason is needed to be fully human. However, reason was not just an ability to think, but included a moral sense. So, reason included putting into action what one intellectually judged to be good.
A common thread through Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle is that the faculty of reason is not merely the ability to think but also one of action: ethics is reason put into practice. This is important to remember because; future ethical approaches (from Christian ethics and Luther) contend that reason is ‘fallen’ and thus an invalid basis for morality – The Story of the Fall (Genesis 3).
Thus, reason involves both understanding and responding and this is why it is closely linked to Eudaimonia. Human choices based on practical reason will lead to happiness.
Action is therefore to be judged in the light of reason, since this is what leads people to make their decisions.
Aristotle says that intellectual reasoning is the highest form because it contemplates timeless truths. Such a person is superior to another who is dominated by emotion or in avoidance of punishment.
So, according to Aristotle, the ideal human telos is to live the life of a Greek gentleman philosopher. His chosen end is Eudaimonia which he strives for through the highest human quality – reason. He develops friendship because it is useful or pleasant and is good company among his equals, although independent.
The virtues
5 primary intellectual virtues
4 secondary intellectual virtues
Moral virtues
|
Vice of excess |
Virtuous mean |
Vice of deficiency |
|
rashness |
courage |
Cowardice |
|
shyness |
modesty |
Shamelessness |
|
envy |
Righteous indignation |
Malicious enjoyment |
|
ambition |
Proper ambition |
unambitiousness |
Aristotle believed that all people have the potential to develop moral and intellectual virtues; however, only few will cultivate potential into actual virtues.
The Golden Mean
Aristotle said that the difference between virtue and vice in both emotions and action was a matter of balance and extremes.
For example, jealousy is a vice because one becomes upset at the good fortune of another even if it is deserved. However, Aristotle considers it reasonable to become indignant at the good fortune of another if it is not deserved. So, righteous indignation is fine in balance. Only the extreme of jealousy is a vice.
This view means that emotions and actions are morally neutral in themselves, and that it is only an extreme form of them which counts as a vice. A criticism by MacIntyre is that emotions such as malice and actions such as murder are already extreme.
It may be better to say that according to Aristotle, the reasonable and appropriate action is judged a virtue and an extreme judged as a vice.
Doing well and doing what is right
Modern ethics seeks to know what is right or wrong without concerning one’s quality of life. However, Aristotle’s ethics are aimed squarely at the good life, in which happiness and virtue are the highest criterion by which to judge human action.
In modern ethics, morality is thought of as something which only comes into play where there is a conflict between our natural inclinations and our duty. Thus ‘doing what is right’ is thought to involve some loss of well-being for a higher goal. This view has been supported by the Protestant Church and developed by Kant in particular.
In contrast, for the Greeks, they were concerned with how people should live well – this is why Aristotle placed ‘happiness’ as the ultimate goal.
An important point is that Aristotle argued that people make decisions about mean not ends. Just as “a doctor does not deliberate about whether he will cure… we lay down the end, and then examine the ways and means to achieve it… hence, we deliberate about what promotes an end, not about the end.”
Aristotle follows that just as we deliberate about what promotes that end, we make single ethical decisions to promote and ultimate telos – that is happiness.
MacIntyre – Virtue Theory revisited
MacIntyre said that morality should be thought about through a historical approach, suggesting that Hegel was better than Moore and Hare.
He traced ethical reasoning from ancient Greece to the modern world:
context: small hilltop communities
virtues: strength, courage, cunning, friendship, honour
context: city states
virtues: courage, friendship, justice, temperance, wisdom
context: rise of Christianity
virtues: courage, justice, temperance, wisdom, faith, hope, charity/love
The 18th century Enlightenment
This saw the destruction of moral conduct
MacIntyre said all these were found lacking and left a moral vacuum in society, which developed 3 types of character in the world:
MacIntyre says we at the cross roads between:
MacIntyre believes the choice is already made as all communities depend on virtues – they would otherwise fail.
Critique of Virtue Theory
For
Against