Virtue Theory

The movie “John Q” by Denzel Washington is about a man whose nine-year is in desperate need for heart transplant, when he discovers that his medical insurance won’t cover and there is no alternative way to pay for the surgery or even to get his name on the organ lists. John Q. Archibald takes the hospital emergency room in hostage to save his child. John Q may be viewed either a bad or a good character, in this argument the question is was John Q was morally right to take the hospital hostage to save his son? If yes than how? People are always trying to do the right thing, such as handing in assignments, getting to work on time, donating. This may make you look like a good person, by there is always a motive behind why you do something, if it’s to just please people and have a good profile, Did John Q care about being a good person or the consequences or was he just trying to save his son? This will be identified through philosopher’s theories of ethics and if in this situation is what the character did morally right and how.

Ethical egoism holds that moral conduct ought to be judged through self-interest. Ethical egoism states that the good consequences for the individual outweigh the consequences placed upon others. In egoism, actions could be considered ethical for the individual if the one taking the action is benefited, while any benefit or detriment to the welfare of others is a side effect and not as important as the consequences for the individual.

We have learned about different kinds of theories, consequentialist and non-consequentialist we are going to see if these theories are accountable for its principles in terms of the standard ethical principles such as truth telling, generosity, misconduct, keeping promises, not offending people, etc. To me not all these theories are not 100% perfect and does not fully account for its principles.

People shame others to lose weight in a subtle way. It is not moral for people to be shaming anyone else for how they look. This concern can arise from setting body standards. On one hand, it is good for a person to want to be fit and do so in a healthy way, but to want to lose weight to feel “skinny” or to be accepted is wrong and many people do not see that. Once a person decides they want to feel accepted into social standards, the problems arise. They begin to plunge into diets without knowing what they are getting into. From there they can end up getting medical conditions that worsen their health. This ends up creating a negative snowball effect psychologically and physiologically.

Virtue ethics discover and classify what moral character is in our life .In my point of view, it is about the conformity to a standard of right which is different from everybody point of view. According to Hooker, “Rational decision making must start by making sense of our role in the world “which means that we have to practice the moral excellence at all the time in order to be in conformity with the Virtue ethics rule.

Christian virtue remains a stable reality, something which firmly establishes in believers the capacity to accomplish those deeds which are worthy of the Kingdom of God. Virtue ethics seeks to cultivate a good life, or seeks to answer, “what kind of person should I be?” but It seems to me virtue ethics is more accurate at exploring the deeper complexity of the human person and divine ordering of things.

- Ethical egoism: The ethical egoism holds that the best action is one that produces the best consequences for the

On the other hand, ethical egoism is a theory that prescribes moral obligation, where all people should be motivated out of self interest (Rachels, 2003, p. 70). This means that every person ought to act in a way that is best for him/herself. Ethical egoism claims that it is moral for all of an individual’s actions to be based on self-interest, without concerning him/herself with the interests of others. In fact, this thought may be continued by stating that altruism is, therefore, personally hindering and even demeaning (Brink, 1997, p. 122). Hence, ethical egoism must consequently mean that actions taken in an individual’s self-interest are moral actions, and actions taken that are not self-beneficial to an individual are immoral and should, as a result, be avoided.

How virtue ethics might come to terms with a contemporary moral issue, such as abortion, capital punishment, or war. Virtue ethics is the view that the main point of ethics is one of character. You should do what a good person would do. Moral belief is not something but believed by any one person or group its how an individual or group agrees to accept or believe about a subject or standard.

It is also believed that it is always moral to promote one’s own goods and never moral not to. Although there may be some conditions in which there should be avoidance of personal action. It is possible that the pursuit of morality for one individual may be the same as perusing self-interests. It would be hard for a single individual to not peruse self interest in line with morality unless he created a new ethical system. It is possible to make mistakes, not morally but mistakes of self-interest. An example would be if a single person was stranded on an island and they chose to swim all day rather than looking for food or shelter. Eventually the individual will be able to create the distinction of short and long term interest and gains. Ethical egoism can also create a situation of conflict as one individual pursuit may suppress another’s pursuit. Conflict arises quiet frequently in these situations and this theory offers no real conflict resolution

Ethical egoism requires that for an action to be moral it must maximize one's own self interest

To wish, to long for, to crave, to want; to desire. It seems as though we go through our whole lives wanting what we know will make us feel more whole, more of ourselves; more of who we are. And whether what we want is seen as bad or good, we still have that desire. It’s in our nature. It is simply what we want. And acquiring the object of one’s desire makes one feel whole. It’s true. Socrates said it best; “all men desire good things” (Plato 77C). What lead him to that conclusion?

Theory of personality virtue or, more commonly known as virtue ethics, is a moral school of thought which emphasises the personality attributes towards attaining a good life. Alternatively, it emphasises the role of one’s character and the virtues that one’s character embodies for determining or evaluating ethical behaviour. Aristotle has made a significant contribution in developing this theory through his book Nichomacheaen Ethics. The theory does not deal with neither the behaviour itself nor the consequence resulting from the behaviour, in order to decide whether something is regarded as right or wrong, as what concerned in consequentialism and deontology. Rather, it teaches to define good people and to identify the virtues that make them good.

The theory is based on three fundamental factors of determining whether an action is right or wrong (Baer, 2015). One of this is the eudaimonism which is a classical constituent of virtue ethics. This defines that humans need to feel the ‘general happiness’ or the ‘well-being’ or have a general ‘good life’ which are the basic pleasures the humans are entitled. These elements are only achieved when the humans practice ‘aretes’ (the good virtues) in everyday living. It urges the humans to apply wisdom in solving the dilemmas that arise each moment they interact with other humans or in various situations. A virtuous life worth living comprises of eudaimonia that should be seen and treated as objective rather than being subjective. The life being lived should, therefore, be well lived regardless of the emotional state of mind. A life is a virtue that is habitual and being driven by purpose. The proponent of virtue ethics the Aristotle believes that moral virtues are bridges between which or wrong can be defined, that is, moral virtue is a golden mean. For example, the virtue of faith is a golden means between two undesirable extremes of despair and

The agent in the definition of virtue ethics is a person who abides by a morally-right life. They live a life of excellency and strive to be the very best they can be. Some people criticize this branch of ethics, because there are “vast differences on what constitutes as a virtue” (Shockley). There is also the point that it particularly focuses on a single individual, and their overall