What Makes A Good Person?

The Virtue Theory, also know as Virtue Ethics, refers to the character of each person. This theory states that every person should try for excellence. The characteristics of each individual are made up from their environment that they are a part of. The theory would further suggest

Virtues are what make a person whole and morally sound, they are the good that can come from behavior or result from something (Dictionary.com). Romans believed that these were what a mortals’ life was based off of. The Aeneid Virgil includes many of the virtues that the Romans value, one being magnitudo animi. Magnitudo animi translates to greatness of the soul. This greatness of the soul is what a person has from the inside and makes them deal with the hardest decisions or the easiest. They persevere and in the end come out great. One person or demi god that represents magnitudo animi is Aenas from The Aeneid. Aenas deals with his struggles and remembers what it means to have this virtue and is the best example of this.

Virtue ethics is a normative theory whose foundations were laid by Aristotle. This theory approaches normative ethics in substantially different ways than consequentialist and deontological theories. In this essay, I will contrast and compare virtue ethics to utilitarianism, ethical egoism, and Kantianism to demonstrate these differences. There is one fundamental aspect of virtue ethics that sets it apart from the other theories I will discuss. For the sake of brevity and to avoid redundancy, I will address it separately. This is the fundamental difference between acting ethically within utilitarianism, egoism, and Kantianism. And being ethical within virtue ethics. The other theories seek to define the ethics of actions while virtue ethics does not judge actions in any way. The other theories deal with how we should act, while virtue ethics determines how we should be.

The idea of striving for goodness has always been something that has been instilled in our minds since birth. We were always taught to the do the right thing. But why? What are the benefits of being a good person versus being bad? This is question that Colin Mcginn tackles in his article, “Why Not Be a Bad Person?” In it, he explains why he think virtue is the more intriguing moral standard, and explores why some people may disagree with him.

I believe virtue is anything that may be advantageous in one’s own way. It may be good, it may be bad in

While reading the novel, ‘Ethan Frome’ the idea of morality is tested throughout the entire novel. When Ethan is put into situations as to whether he should drive the narrator to and from, for example, he demonstrates his moral capability. However, the deeper situations he finds himself in, initiate a need to really reflect upon what the moral thing to do is. As people who are well aware of the functions of relationships, fidelity is a common point always drawn back to. This idea of remaining faithful to one person in a relationship has been deemed moral. What determines what is moral? I would guess our conscience would be our reasoning for doing something that may be considered wrong by society. In the novel, Ethan Frome is placed in multiple

With the character and interests, Aristotle states that the virtue should start from moral behavior, which means treating other people well and not being self-interest. Next aspect is the values and strength of character, which explains the companion between values and ethics. In order to be a virtual person with strong character, that person has to have good values, generosity, honesty and motivation. In addition, it is really important for people to be moral and happy at the same time. In order to understand the concept of ethics more, people need to perceive what the factors of a good and happy life are. People cannot be really happy if they do good things because someone is watching them. It is a forced action. Morality is truly shown when people are willing to do so, not when they are forced to. Therefore, ethics is not composed of rules that people have to follow. It is the principle that people understand and voluntarily do right things. Besides the daily life, ethics principle is also applied to community and culture. All business students need to understand the concept of ethics in their future career. In workplaces or organizations, culture and moral behavior have strong connection among employees. Business students have to study organizational behavior class upon graduation to shape the ideas of cultural differences and moral behavior in their mind and prepare to act

Virtue ethics sets itself apart from the other two; according to Consequentialists virtue ethics tends to promote good consequences. Virtue ethics does not benefit when it is with itself, but when it is with good standards and choices. It takes account more than just the knowledge of a human; Motivation, emotions, wisdom, moral education, and much more. It scales reason and emotions at the same level whereas consequentialism and deontology prefer reason over emotions. Virtue ethics is described as a more open topic that can be explained in multiple ways compared to consequentialism and deontology which tend to be monistic about value.

Both religions follow the “Golden Rule” and enlighten their followers on the benefits of it in achieving salvation. Utilitarianism also focuses its teachings on decision’s outcome as suppose to a code of laws which gives individual ethical grounds for making decisions that reduces suffering, similar to virtue teachings. A good example is when people compliment another person about their looks despite the negative outlook in their mind.

The virtue based ethical theories places more emphasis on helping people develop good character traits, for example, in “courage combined with honesty is needed for health professionals to admit that they mistakenly took the wrong treatment approach” (Purtilo & Doherty, 2015), and honesty to effectively communicate with others like patients and their families. Virtue ethics can also be seen in other professions, such as law enforcement because they also have to have good character traits to help people. I do believe this argument succeeds in helping manage inevitable ethical

Virtue Theory relies heavily on the character of the person rather than the circumstances in which the individual acts. The virtue theory deemphasizes rules and regulations and instead focuses on the internal character of the act in question. The virtue theory is not concerned with the intentions of the act. Nor is it concerned primarily with the consequences of the act. Instead the virtue theory relies on moral virtues. If the individual is of good character or not is the primary concern with virtue theory. What is difficult to ascertain however, is the question of what constitutes character? How can one appropriate establish the contents of one's character? A person's character traits are the compesition of his character traits. These traits can either be good (virtuous) or bad (vices). In both instances, the virtue theory establishes and emphasized these two

Ethics are moral principles that can be used to help guide peoples decisions. We are all different and therefore our beliefs and opinions differ. There are many ethical theories, and according to Panza and Potthast (n.d.) the following are some that are widely used. Virtue ethics is one theory which states that personality is the most important thing. Living an ethical life, acting right, requires that one develops and demonstrates the quality of courage, compassion, wisdom, and temperance. It also requires that greed, jealousy, and selfishness is avoided. Utilitarianism states that the amount of happiness and suffering created by a person’s actions is what matters the most. As a result, acting rightly includes maximizing the amount of

Virtue ethics is a theory that focuses on character development and what virtues one should obtain to be who they are supposed to be, as oppose to actions. An example of virtue ethics would be someone who is patient, kind, loving, generous, temperance, courage and flourishing as oppose to a person who lies, cheats, and

So what is ethics? George W. Reynolds states that “ethics is a set of beliefs about right and wrong behaviour within a society” and that “ethical behaviour conforms to generally accepted norms” with almost all of them being universal. As we all know, certain behaviours such as cheating and lying are

There are many strengths and weaknesses to virtue ethics that can be discussed, but they both have a main strength and weakness that could be talked about. One primary strength of virtue ethics is character traits this is how we use are virtues to help other people and make them better. People should have respect, love, and compassion for one another these are what a person should have in them innately to help others out because it’s the way you are instead of doing just because you should. The main weakness of virtue ethics that people argue is that it does not have focus of what is supposed to be morally right and wrong in the first place even though we know that something like murder is not moral virtue ethics doesn’t really ask this question.