Virtue Ethics | Meaning & Examples
Table of Contents
ShowWhat is the main idea of virtue ethics?
The main idea of virtue ethics is that moral agents should focus on cultivating certain character traits, like courage and moderation. This stands in contrast to other moral theories that emphasize following a rule or set of rules, such as utilitarianism.
What is an example of a virtue?
One example of a virtue is courage. It is a virtue because it contributes to human flourishing, and it is a mean between the deficiency of cowardice and the excess of rashness.
What does virtue mean in ethics?
In ethics, virtue means a cultivated quality that has moral worth. That is to say, striving to attain and perfect virtues is the primary purpose of moral activity, and ethics seeks to guide individuals in that endeavor.
Table of Contents
ShowVirtue ethics relates to the ethical theory that emphasizes the cultivation of certain positive character traits as the aim of moral activity. This means that moral agents should focus on becoming virtuous than worry about following any particular rule or set of guidelines. This endeavor involves practicing practical wisdom, meaning (among other things) knowing how to navigate one's circumstances in relationship to one's own abilities. Virtue based ethics focus on expressing a person's rationality through their character traits.
Virtue Ethics Examples
The most famous virtue ethics example is Aristotelian, or eudaimonian ethics, which holds that the final goal of ethics is eudaimonia, meaning happiness, flourishing, or the good life. Note that eudaimonia does not mean a life with the most possible pleasure, which would be called hedonistic. Eudaimonia means a kind of 'flourishing' where a person is expressing their full rational powers, which involves pleasures, wealth, health, etc.; but eudaimonia is a more complete good than any of those other parts.
In Aristotelian virtue ethics, a moral agent should cultivate all of the virtues. Moreover, they should develop the practical wisdom necessary for knowing how to apply the virtues in the right way, in the right situations, with regard to the right people and objects. To put the point another way, Aristotelian ethics does not encourage simply cultivating a virtue or two in isolation. Instead, virtue ethics is about the cultivation of all virtues and developing the wisdom to express them appropriately. Because of the comprehensive nature of cultivating and expressing virtues, and because of the scope of the aim of virtue ethics (a good/happy life), virtue ethics encourages people to focus on leading a good life as a whole.
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What is virtue? Aristotle characterizes virtue as a mean between two extremes: deficient and excessive; with regard to passions, desires, etc. People learn virtues by seeing others who exemplify them; and then attempting to emulate that person. At first, a person is merely mimicking virtue and may apply their understanding of virtue incorrectly. Moreover, their virtues will be incomplete. Over time, however, a person will begin to feel the appropriate emotions in the appropriate amount at the appropriate time; and their general understanding of themselves and their circumstances will be developed. At this point, their attempts to express virtue will be more than mimicry, and it could be said they are expressing their own character.
'Virtue' is a translation of the Greek term, arete, which could also be translated as 'excellence.' A virtue is not primarily about spiritual purity, but is instead about being an excellent human. In other words, virtues mean performing human functions well.
Aristotelian virtue ethics has a notion of virtue different from religious virtue. Traditional religions celebrate virtues that involve a kind of purity of the soul and renunciation of the body. For instance, chastity is a religious virtue that means renouncing sex (at least before marriage). For Aristotle, a virtue would not aim at a full renunciation, but instead a mean: neither too much nor too little. Post-Aristotelian virtue ethics might include care ethics, which entails cultivating certain virtues associated with femininity rather than following a hyper-rationalized system of rules.
Virtue Examples
Virtue examples would include, for instance, courage. Courage is a positive character trait that contributes to happiness and it is the mean between between rashness (which is a deficiency of fear) and cowardice (which is an excess of fear). Note that the mean between excess and deficiency is not simply the exact middle point. Instead, some virtues will be closer to an excess and some closer to a deficiency. Courage may be closer to rashness, since living a happy life may require habituating oneself to feel less fear. Thus, rashness may not be as bad as cowardice.
Ambition could also be considered a virtue. While being over-ambitious is a vice that consists of excessively wanting to prove oneself, a lack of ambition would clearly be a deficiency. A person lacking ambition would not be able to fully express their rational powers. Thus, it can be seen that a complete, flourishing life requires the right amount of ambition, a cultivated virtue.
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There have been several objections against virtue ethics, notably given from the perspective of the main rival theories: utilitarianism and deontology. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, the view that consequences are ultimately what determine rightness and wrongness of acts. Utilitarianism specifically claims that ethical actions are ones that maximize utility. Meaning that the right thing to do is to maximize the balance of pleasure over pain (utility), for all beings capable of feeling pleasure. Thus, utilitarianism may encourage people to sacrifice some of their own happiness if it causes even more happiness in others. Deontology, on the other hand, thinks that moral rules can be established from the nature of reason itself. Thus, its focus on determining whether an action is right or wrong is based on what rule it followed. The most famous formulation of its ultimate ethical principle, the categorical imperative, is to never treat humanity (in yourself or others) merely as a means, but always at the same time as an end in themselves. For instance, you should not lie to people, even if it causes them pain; because you would just be using that person and blocking them from exercising their own reason through deception.
Both of these moral theories focus on rules and figuring out what the right thing to do is. Consequently, theorists from those two camps often object to virtue ethics; stating that it lacks the ability to guide people on how to act. It cannot say what the right thing to do is. Whereas deontology and utilitarianism can claim to know what the right thing to do is in any scenario, virtue ethics seems like it can only list positive character traits.
Another criticism is that virtue ethics is egoistic, meaning it encourages people to be self-serving because they are focusing on their own happiness. Deontologists and utilitarians both think that sometimes doing the right thing requires helping others rather than oneself. Virtue theorists, by contrast, consistently focus on individuals cultivating their own character for the sake of exercising and strengthening their own rational faculties.
A final criticism of virtue ethics is that it is too relativistic. Since virtues change from society to society and person to person, it seems like virtue ethics offers no stable ethical system.
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Virtue ethics is the moral theory that advocates for cultivating certain positive character traits. The most famous version of virtue ethics comes from Aristotle, who claimed that the virtues contributed to eudaimonia, or human flourishing. Virtues, for Aristotle, are a mean between an excess and a deficiency. Thus, practicing virtue ethics means engaging in a process in which one reflects on what the virtues are in order to determine how one should act. A morally virtuous person, then, needs practical wisdom in order to express their virtues appropriately. This theory makes morality dependent upon individuals and society.
Virtue ethics differs from both deontology, which focuses on never using humans merely as a means, and utilitarianism, which focuses on maximizing the balance of pleasure over pain. Both of these have set rules to follow independent of societies and individuals. One common criticism against virtue ethics is that by allowing so much relativity between persons and societies, it does not offer a stable standard for ethical decision-making.
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Video Transcript
Virtue Ethics
Have you ever seen someone harassed, and debated in yourself what you should do? Or, perhaps, you found a wallet full of money and wondered if you should keep it, find its owners, or do something else? We frequently encounter decisions, and we need to decide how we will respond. Hopefully we will respond ethically, although even trying to determine what is the ethical choice can be difficult to determine. One method that philosophers have used to try to determine what is ethical is called virtue ethics (sometimes called moral ethics).
Virtue ethics relies on virtues (i.e., qualities that are considered morally good) to make good, ethical decisions. In order to understand virtue ethics, let's compare it to some other approaches to ethical decision-making. There are three major approaches to ethics:
- Rules (deontology)
- Consequences (consequentialism)
- Moral character (virtue)
Let's look at the harassing example. If you were to take a deontology view to this problem, you would focus on the rules as the proper course of action to take. This can be the rules of your workplace. Are you supposed to report all harassment to HR? In this case, deontology will dictate that the ethical decision would be to report this harassment to HR.
Or perhaps you know that the consequences of not stopping the harassment will lead to a hostile work environment for everyone, and the consequences of stopping the harassment will lead to a good work environment. This would be a consequentialism view to take.
Finally, a virtue ethics view will look into yourself and believe that it is morally good to stand up for other people. Thus, you will stop the harassment because you believe it to be morally good to do so.
All approaches could end with the same result; although in many cases we do end up with different results. The main difference between the approaches is simply how we reach that result.
Virtue Ethics Principles
In order to understand the principles of virtue ethics, we need to understand what virtue is. There are several different ways that we can look at virtue. Virtue can be dependent upon what society and individuals determine is morally good. This can differ from one society to another. Furthermore, an individual can deem something to be morally good while the society may not.
Aristotle, Greek philosopher and one of the earliest philosophers to examine virtue ethics, explained that virtue is ''the mean'' (or the average) of two extremes. On one end of the extremes, we have a deficiency of the trait, while the other end is an excess of the trait. As an example, we can look at courage as a virtue. Those who are deficient are cowards, while those who have an excess are rash.
How would you determine what your virtues are? What are the virtues of society around you? A eudaemonist view would determine virtue to be something that brings you happiness or helps you to flourish. But this must be a happiness and flourishing that isn't based upon physical pleasure or luxury. The agent-based or exemplarist view would base virtue upon what drives you, or what motivates you. Another method to determine virtues is a target-centered view. Using this view virtues are things that allow you (or society) to receive a checkmark of approval.
We can already see how virtue can be different for each person, thus changing what the ethical choice is. This is one of the objections to virtue ethics. There is no real basis or standard guidelines for everyone.
Virtue Ethics Application
As a scientist, there are several opportunities to make ethical (or non-ethical) decisions. Let's say you were researching the effect of pollution in a lake. You know that if the pollution has a large enough negative impact on the environment then you can force a large company to pay for proper clean-up of the pollution. After performing your experiment, you realize that the results were not what you were expecting, and the negative impact is not quite big enough to force the company to pay for the clean-up.
You know that this pollution does have a negative impact on the environment, but your results are not enough to get the needed clean-up performed. You realize that if you simply throw out one of the data points, the results will indicate your needed results. What is the correct thing to do ethically? Looking at this from a virtue ethics perspective we need to evaluate what your virtues are. Perhaps, above all, you believe it is morally right to protect the environment, no matter the cost. In this case, the ethical thing to do would be to ensure the pollution gets cleaned up. Perhaps, you believe that it is morally right to be honest. In this case, the ethical thing to do would be to keep the original numbers.
In reality, you probably value the environment and being honest, so how do you reconcile the two? This is where determining what your root values are truly matters.
What you end up deciding will be different for everyone, just make sure in making ethical decisions (when based upon virtue ethics) that it feels morally right to you. This is where the issue with virtue ethics comes into play. If we were to follow deontology ethics, then the answer would be easy because we follow the rules of scientific research. There is a very clear cut ethical choice.
Lesson Summary
All right, let's review what we've learned. As we learned in this lesson, virtue ethics explores what is the ethical choice based upon your virtues, or what is morally right. Philosophers such as the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle explored what virtue ethics means and specifically what virtue means. There are several different ways to define virtue, including a mean of extremes, something that brings true happiness, the thing that motivates you, and what gives you a mark of approval.
The downfall of using virtue ethics is that it can change from society to society (or even individual to individual) based on what is held as morally right.
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