Aristotle's Virtue-ethics.SSP 114....pdf

Be ethical

1. ARISTOTLE'S
VIRTUE
ETHICS

2. V
IRTUE ETHICS
Virtue Ethics was developed in the late 1950s but was made fashionable in the
1970s and 1980s by Foot, P. (Virtues & Vices 1978), Maclntyre, A. (After Virtue
1981), and Taylor R. (Ethics, Faith & Reason 1985). This movement was a
reaction against Utilitarianism and Kantianism.
Virtue Ethics emphasizes BEING, rather than DOING.
The people that can be used as examples of Virtue Ethics are ‘good people’ i.e
Jesus, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Socrates, Nelson Mandela, etc

3. It is a philosophy that was first developed by a well-
known ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who asked:
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LIVE A GOOD LIFE?
According to Aristotle, the highest goal of humanity is
the good life or “human flourishing” (eudaimonia &
happiness). Virtues make us good people and help us
to live a good life, thus developing virtues is the way to
achieve a rich and satisfying life.
FATHER OF VIRTUE ETHICS

4. NATURE OF
ETHCIS BASIS OF
VIRTUE ETHICS
Virtue ethics is the oldest normative
tradition in Western philosophy, its
roots in ancient Greek civilisation. The
most influential account presented by
Aristotle in his book Nicomachean
Ethics.
Ethics primarily refers to character
and human excellence, the
VIRTUES. The primary criterion for
moral rightness is good character

5. VIRTUE ETHICS
Is an admirable quality that can be seen to produce
success or benefit in a given community. Virtues are
admirable qualities that lead to moral excellence in
virtue ethics.
We always desire happiness for its own sake. The
function of man is activity of the soul and accordance
with reason. Moral virtues can best be acquired
through practice and habit. Virtue is a mean lying
between two vices. VIRTUE LIES IN A MEAN

6. NICOMACHEAN ETHICS

“Every craft and every inquiry, and similarly every action and
project, seems to aim at some good; hence the good has been
well defined as that at which everything aims.”. Therefore GOOD
can be defined in terms of the purpose or aim to which someone
is moving, these aims can be numerous, and not all of them are
good, so Aristotle established the SUPREME GOOD. The
Supreme Good is what everyone aims for, which is
EUDAIMONIA or ‘Happiness’.

7. VIRTUE
“We can experience fear, confidence, desire, anger, pity, and
generally any kind of pleasure and pain too much or too little, and in
either case not properly. But to experience all this at the right time,
toward the right object, toward the right people, for the right reason,
and in the right manner”
It is the state involving rational choice, consisting in a mean relative to
us and determined by reason.

8. THE THEORY OF VIRTUE
ETHICS

A person is good, if he has virtues and lacks vices.

It is the view that the foundation of morality is in the
development of good character traits, or virtues, not good
acts.

9. THE GOLDEN MEAN
A morally good person will live a life of moderation, the “mean” between
two extreme types of actions.
PLEASURE
The only real pleasures are those of the virtuous person.
EUDAIMONIA
Is crudely translated as ‘happiness’; a later interpretation is ‘flourishing’-
being successful. It is not merely a subjective state of pleasure or
contentment but it is the kind of life that all of us would want to live in if
we understand our essential nature.

10. Aristotle aims to lead everyone to a
‘good life’ and achieve happiness
(eudaimonia). If we follow the virtues
then we are living in accordance with
the Golden Mean.

11. VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS
The true goods of man are the spiritual
goods that consist in virtue of his soul
and this is happiness. Happiness
consists in the activity of the mind in
conformity with virtue

12. INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL
VIRTUES
Aristotle says that virtues in life are relatively obvious so he splits them into
two, the intellectual and moral virtues.
MORAL
VIRTUES
Are irrational and
acquired through habit
and over some time, it
becomes second nature.

INTELLECTUAL
VIRTUES
Are rational virtues of the mind and are
acquired through instruction and the
ability to understand, reason, and make
sound judgements. Intellectual Virtues
are the best and most complete virtue.

13. HOW CAN WE BECOME
VIRTUOUS
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.”
(Nicomachean Ethics). Virtue ethics suggests that we cannot live alone as
individuals in a society so we should work together and cooperate. If everyone
aspires and practices virtues then we will have a better society.

Aristotle believed that we could be a good man when we continuously
practice these virtues until they are ingrained in us so we could act
accordingly without needing to think about it.

If we fail to properly develop virtuous character traits, it will result in acquiring
vices or bad character traits.

14. THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING!