Metaethical Systems Virtue or Character Ethics Tradition Deontological

Metaethical Systems • Virtue or Character Ethics Tradition • Deontological Ethics • Utilitarian Ethics

Virtue Ethics • Introduction – Basic Metaphor: Man-the-Answerer – Basic Method: Dialogue – Basic Question: What is happening? And what is the “fitting” virtuous response to this situation?

Virtue Ethics • Plato (427? -347 BC) – The Person and the State Aspect of the Person Mineral Virtue Role in State Reason Gold Wisdom King Spirit Silver Courage Guardian Appetite Bronze Temperance Workers

Virtue Ethics – Character Types • Philosopher King -- marked by wisdom and balance • Timarchic -- marked by Spirit and urge to dominate • Oligarchic -- marked by greed and avarice

Virtue Ethics • Plato – Character Types • Democratic -- marked by an undisciplined pursuit of pleasure in all its forms (all the candy in the candy store) • Tyrannical -- marked by the total control of the individual by a “master passion” that destroys all discipline, law, moral value, or limits

Virtue Ethics • Aristotle (384 -322 BC) – Virtue is learned from virtuous people • Virtue is essential if one is to reach the “end” of holistic happiness • Virtue is realized through “practices” or ways of being over time • A person with a virtuous character avoids both excess and deficiency – the Golden Mean

Virtue Ethics • Aristotle – Intellectual Virtues – especially Prudence – Goodness and Happiness • Goodness – Instrumental good – Intrinsic good • Happiness understood as Human Flourishing is an intrinsic good and the “telos” of human life – The Polis – Friendship

Virtue Ethics • Christian Virtue Ethics – Augustine (354 -430) and Thomas Aquinas (1225 -1274) to present – Disordered Love – when we love things, others and self more than God, thus, trying to reverse the hierarchy of value that God established – Great Chain of Being – Value flows from greater to lesser rather than from lesser to greater

Virtue Ethics – Christian Virtue Ethics • Cardinal Virtues – – Prudence Justice Temperance Fortitude • Theological Virtues – Faith – Hope – Love

Virtue Ethics – Features of Christian Virtue Ethics Tradition • Narrative Based: rooted in the Gospel story and the practices of Jesus – Practices – or disciplines that inform how one is to live are rooted in the narrative – Virtues – are never “abstracted” from the narrative in which they are embedded or the practices that enable their acquisition within living faith communities of people accountable to each other and God.

Deontological Ethics • Immanuel Kant (1724 -1804) – Assumptions • Basic Metaphor – Man-as-Citizen • Basic Question – “What is the first law of my life? ” • Basic Equation – Moral Obligation over Moral Value

Deontological Ethics • Basic Good – “Good Will” which is the only intrinsic good and is only good through willing, . “It is good in itself. ” To do one’s duty regardless of personal emotion, benefit, or consequence is to act with a good will and with moral worth. – Hypothetical and Categorical – Categorical is both necessary and universal

Deontological Ethics – Categorical Imperative (two statements of it) • “I should never act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law. ” • “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in you own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means. ”

Deontological Ethics – Autonomy of the Will • “Autonomy of the will is the property that the will has of being a law to itself. ” • This requires the “idea of freedom” of the will without which voluntary action is impossible.

Deontological Ethics – Goodness and Happiness • An universal, apriori (not based upon experience but prior to experience), rational ethic assumes they are related • Often they are not properly related in this world of suffering • So, a Moral Governor (God) is required to make goodness and happiness equal in an immortal existence

Utilitarian Ethics • John Stuart Mill (1806 -1873) – Basic Metaphor – Man-the-Maker – Basic Question – “What is the ‘goal’ or ‘telos’ of my life and what is its nature? ” – Basic Answer – “Pleasure and freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends. ” – Basic Equation – Moral value (the telos or nonmoral good) over moral obligation

Utilitarian Ethics – Basic Model – Social model but it easily is reducible to a model of autonomous persons – Basic Principle – Principle of Utility expressed in the following statement: “The greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. ” – Basic Foundation – “the social feelings of mankind – the desire to be in unity with our Fellow creatures. . ”

Utilitarian Ethics – Justice – is a “social utility” based upon • “the impulse of self-defense” • “the feeling of sympathy” – Rights – “To have a right, then, is, I conceive, to have something which society ought to defend me in the possession of. If the objector goes on to ask why it ought, I can give him no other reason than general utility” (Mill, Utilitarianism 54).

Conclusions • Suffering as a “Limit Situation” – To act consistently with one’s character defined by the virtues is to act with integrity – Suffering challenges our assumptions about life and reveals our character as we realize: • Our limitations to “construct or control” existence • Our limitations to establish the “law” of our life – Our response to suffering defines our character