Three Major Approach To Virtue Ethics

At the end of the day, most individuals are most concerned with the impact of decisions on him/herself and his/her ethics. This is why The Virtue Approach calls for the best decision to be the one that leads the decision-maker to act as the sort of person, the sort of human being they aspire to be. The highest potential of our character comes into play here since morals are in role, and no one wants to admit to poor morals. With the Virtue Approach, the contract with Pacemaker company would persist due to the consideration of heart patients and the Board of Directors’ good intentions towards them.

Consideration and responsibility are both virtues that virtue ethics holds in high regard (Shannon 32). Under virtue ethics, this move was

argument. The first of which is that there are a number of objections to virtue ethics. One of

Virtue ethics view splits into two cases. The flourishing-centered case sees that if an action is right, then it is virtuous, and if it virtuous, then it will be flourishing. The virtue-centered case sees that if an action is right, then it is virtuous, and flourishment is simply a side-effect of begin virtuous. The flourishing-centered structure requires people to be virtuous in order to flourish, whereas the virtue-centered structure views that

Let us suppose that there are two individuals who have different levels of internal conflict when faced with a virtue dilemma VD. The first individual, named Easy, when faced with VD does not have a second of hesitation and immediately chooses the more morally correct decision (what the morally correct decision is will depend by what definition of virtue is applied to the situation and will be addressed later in the paper). This first individual Easy is categorized as virtuous according to a virtue ethicist in that he perfectly possesses virtue, and “is often discussed as an ideal which we aim towards, but do not necessarily achieve” (Athanassoulis 2000). As Athanassoulis points out, there are few if any who are truly virtuous (according to virtue ethics), but for the purpose of this paper we will assume that Easy is perfectly virtuous.

Another approach in ethics is virtue ethics, which refer to not only ethical actions and behaviours, but also embody the ethical character as which characteristics help people become ‘virtuous’, in which “an action is right if, and only if, it is what a virtuous agent would do in the circumstances, a virtuous agent is one who exercises the virtues, and a virtue is a character trait that human beings need to flourish”. (Hursthouse and

Virtue ethics can be described as a collection of numerous theories that put their emphasis mainly on the role of virtue and character rather than emphasizing on the guidelines associated with the actions and the consequences of this actions. The origin of virtue ethics can be dated back to the ancient Greek and this concept was highly conceptualized by the early Greek philosophers and thinkers.

Another reason as to why Virtue Ethics doesn’t offer a successful approach to ethical decision making is because it relies too heavily on the character of individuals. For example Milgram’s experiment proved that normal citizens of society are nearly always likely to follow orders of an authority figure even when the lives of innocent people are at risk. The experiment showed that 65% of participants continued to electrocute fellow partakers up to 450 volts, just because they were told to. Virtue ethics is not act based and instead agent centred. In a given ethical decision the question asked would be ‘what kind of person should I aim to become’. Aristotle believed that when we are young ‘that is the time at which the character is being formed’.

Virtue ethics combined with deontological ethics, in my opinion, determine good guidelines for human behavior. Virtue ethics is based upon ability to live in community with other human beings. Deontological utilizes rules to define appropriate human behavior.

It can be applied to business, medicine, law enforcement, etc. Virtue ethics is the basis in which public service ( or private) base their rules on. For example, one should have integrity to take responsibility for their own work. This is considered a workplace virtue because in the workplace, there is such thing as proper etiquette. This establishes a right and wrong way to behave in a workplace environment. Virtue Ethics is a main component in this by setting a set of qualities, or virtues, deemed appropriate for a professional

The ethical issue of whether the annihilation of followers of a religion that proclaim their holy writings and their god demand the destruction of all who will not succumb to the will of their god, their teachings, and their laws are correct, justified, and sanctioned for the greater good of all mankind. The issue is further exacerbated by requiring the United States to be the leading force in the destruction of those adhering to the perversion of a religion that is oft quoted as a religion of peace. Are these followers a band of holy zealots directed by their god to subdue the earth or a threat to the entire world? Is their god the wrong god and therefore it is not religious intolerance when they are destroyed? Can an ethical justification be found to destroy the lives of religious fanatics, because the nations of the world reject their ideology? Is annihilation the only means to curtail their terrorism for the greater good? Is it ethically permissible to determine whether the beliefs of a religious group are correct or pose a danger to others? The means of achieving the greater good would appear to be dependent upon the viewpoint of the examiner, which is hypocritical.

Virtue ethicist may be defined as concepts that emphasize the role of character and virtue in moral theory rather than making difference through action. They emphasis on undertakings that encourages or makes a person more generous or benevolent. According to Aristotle virtue are of two kinds; intellectual virtue which originate from birth and grows from teaching and through experience and time. The second one is moral virtue which comes through human habits especially one that is hard to give up, (Aristotle, 1931). It is important to differentiate this from deontologist which uphold the the concept of doing unto others what you want others to do unto you. Utilitarianism in contrast with virtue ethicist emphases on actions that give the maximum benefit to a large number of people as possible.

The Stanford of Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines virtue ethics as an ethical approach “that emphasizes the virtues, or moral character, in contrast to the approach which emphasizes duties or rules (deontology) or that which emphasizes the consequences of actions (consequentialism).” Additionally, The Stanford of Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives an example of a virtue ethicist by saying that a virtuous person will help someone in need because it is charitable and contributes to the good of society.

According to Holland (2011) there are few criticisms of virtue ethics. First, virtue ethics is really complicated and multiple varieties of the theory of virtue ethics exist. Hence a single summary of VE cannot completely do justice to this theory and the complexity it encompasses. Second, as VE is attempted to be used on more specific cases and is tried to be made more concise, the theory tends to become more inaccurate. The article further suggests the needs for a more comprehensive and specific explanation of virtue ethics. Although there are criticisms of virtue ethics, there are positive remarks about it as well. Stephen (2011) cites McDougall, according to whom, virtue ethics might be the best way to think about and approach

In an attempt to revive the ideas of virtue ethics, many philosophers have expressed their criticisms of so-called "modern ethical theories." Some examples are as follows. Pincoffs presents his idea that modern ethical theory (MET) reduces ethics to resolution of quandaries. Williams explains his idea that MET focuses on only a particular, peculiar variety of ethical thought called "morality." Stocker claims that MET lead to "moral schizophrenia." And Wolf claims MET embodies the idea of a moral saint. Among these critics, I believe that Pincoffs presents the strongest criticism of MET.