Example Of Virtue Ethics

Aristotle and Rita Manning both have different theories when it comes to ethics. Aristotle uses virtue ethics to answer questions about morality whereas Manning uses what is called ethics of caring to do the same thing. Virtue ethics claims people’s actions aim towards the highest good of happiness. From happiness, moral virtue stems from reasons governing the desires of the soul. Manning on the other hand believes that moral actions extend from people caring for one another on a personal level. By developing the ability to care for others, people become morally aware of how to act in certain situations. When the question of: “how ought I live my life?”

When most think of philosophy a list of people come to mind. You have your “greats” such as Plato, Nietzsche, and of course Aristotle. However, this does not mean that their ideas cannot be challenged and questioned, as no one is above criticism. Aristotelian Virtue Ethics have a major flaw that strikes at the heart of the idea. There is a severe lack of guidance both in what a virtue is, and what happens when they conflict. The mains question is, is one virtue more important than another?

Consider these two quotes: “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” – Aristotle and “There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.” - Maya Angelou. These two powerful minds present two ways of thought to be debated. One saying do whatever it is that makes you happy and the other being do not be greedy in life.

Virtue theory is how a person makes decision right and wrong. What kind of person does one wants to be? Also, it deals with a person characteristic difference between good habits and bad habits and the commitments to their relationship, job, and community. Virtue theory is especially important in medical field. Working in medical field it does not matter if a person is doctor, nurse, or therapist. This type of occupations it is extremely important to keep patients information confidential. Also, working medical workers needs to be good to their patients. Medical Beneficence is to be good the patient. Medical virtue is higher standard of virtue than any other career because; it is not based on person self-interest

Ethics and virtue have been a very contentious issue facing society for centuries. Many argue over the merits of various theories, each with its own philosophies and assumptions. It is this argument that has given rise to many popular and followed theories of ethics and virtues. The theories discussed primarily in this document include the virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological theory. Each is very distinct to the others in regards to its principles and assumptions regarding human behavior. Each however, has merit in regards to question of ethics and virtue, and how it should subsequently be valued.

According to MacIntyre “practice” refers to an activity in which one does to achieve a goal. The practice could be a done for reasons such as money, pleasure, requirement, education, etc., usually to obtain a “good”.

As the nurse director in the given case study, using the Aristotelian virtue ethics as the guideline for all actions, thoughts, and feelings would need to correspond with his definition of a good life. The hospital did not act in the highest form of the good life, as they did not consider the implications of the precedent it would set for all future situations where racism plays a factor in a hospital setting. In order to understand what was necessary to think, feel, and do for each party involved, and the argument that Aristotle would make, it is important to understand what Aristotle would define as a good life and moral virtues.

The first theory I will compare virtue ethics against is ethical egoism. The two theories share a commonality apart from being normative in nature. They both seek what is best for the doer. Aristotle claimed that happiness is ultimately attained by striving for the “function of man” which is the excellence found within virtue. This is comparable to ethical egoism because of it’s principle of exclusively acting in one’s own best interest. While virtue ethics states that a virtuous character is the goal, ethical egoism is not specific to what is in a person’s best interest. If attaining a virtuous character is

➢ Virtue Ethics – in the situation Sophie is faced with I believe that a virtue ethicist would state that Sophie made an incorrect or the wrong decision in selecting one of her children to be sent to their own death. As virtue ethics and mainly the Aristotelian virtue ethicist approach believes that the character of an individual is important and that the way in which we act will determine whether we are a virtuous individual. The virtue ethicist would state that the best outcome of the situation would be to send both of her children to their death. They believe that morality is based on happiness and to act in a virtuous manner is the best way to act as it is what a true human being should do. If she was presented with such a choice by the Nazi, to let the guards kill both of her children or for her to herself decide which one must perish, then she should not, from a virtue ethicist point of view have any interference with the death of her two children as she would be interfering with their death and causing one to perish – this is not virtuous so should be avoided.

With winter break 2016 winding down, in anticipation of the upcoming spring semester of classes, I found myself compelled to login to my Creighton accounts and explore what the class material that had already been placed onto Blueline. Glancing briefly at the course layout, I was initially shocked by the large amount of information that had been posted under my Theology 270 class. Examining the rubric, I can honestly say I was less than excited to discover a total of six papers and two tests would be required to pass the class. It would be a lie to not confess that the thought of attempting to possibly switch classes, or even drop the class entirely certainly crossed my mind during my initial judgment of the class. However, now with just a

Chapter nine talks about the environment within and virtues. Christian virtue ethics focus on the end of an act instead of on the consequences because the end says more about the agent (p.164, M). If one person does something that doesn't seem of good virtue, then Christian virtue won't judge that person till the end because their means for doing something could be different than one thinks. The goal of virtue ethics is not better decisions but better deciders (p.164, M). Virtue ethics is about an individual making a decision that may or may not be a good one. Then, people outside of that decision have to decide if that individual's decision was worth changing or leaving it be. Environmental virtue ethics aims for the formation of good people, because good

Virtue, when I hear that word I think of value and morality and only good people can be virtuous. When I hear the word ethics I think of good versus evil, wrong and right. Now when the two are put together you get virtue ethics. You may wonder what can virtue ethics possibly mean. It’s just two words put together to form some type of fancy theory. Well this paper will discuss virtue ethics and the philosophy behind it.

Duty based ethics can be defined as actions that (independent of consequences) are right or wrong. Duty based ethics states that we are morally obligated to act in accordance with a certain set of principles and rules regardless of outcome. We are all obliged to fulfill our duties and to act to fulfill these duties (Shakil, 2014)

That is, under the Aristotelian philosophy, all human actions have a root cause or motivation.

1. HONESTY: Honesty is the virtue of communicating the truth and creating trust in the minds of others. Therefore, business honesty means the virtue of communicating business truth and creating business trust in the minds of others. This communication may include verbal and non-verbal and may be transferred to customers, employees, investors, creditors, debtors, co-owners, the government, the public and anyone who may have interest in one’s business.