Virtue Ethics Plato Courage Justice Wisdom Temperance Aristotle

Virtue Ethics

Plato Courage Justice Wisdom Temperance

Aristotle • Aristotle was concerned with causes and change and believed that everything has a telos and the Human end or telos is to achieve Eudaimonia (happiness). For humans to flourish, they needed to practice virtue (arete) and by practicing we improve our virtues and so become happy and live good lives. He states that the happiness of the individual is of less value than the happiness of the community (links to Utilitarianism). • He stated that there were three ways of living a happy life: • 1)To love pleasure 2) To love honour (Politics) 3) To love Contemplation (Philosophy) • He regarded the love of contemplation to be of the highest regard as you use reason.

• Doctrine Of the Mean (Golden Mean)

• Strengths • Focuses on cultivating good people from which good actions will follow, rather than the pedantic drafting of legalistic laws • Can be followed by both religious and secular groups • It is a simple system based on a universal well-being for the individual and community • It attempts to link ethical theory with ethical practice • Strives for personal autonomy but within the context of society

• Criticisms • How do we decide which virtues should be cultivated the most? • The Golden mean is not easy to apply to all virtues • Because the emphasis is on being rather than doing, it can seem a selfish theory • Hannah Arendt argued that virtue theory fails to provide us with a proper understanding of what she called "goodness beyond virute and evil beyond vice" • Virtues are traditional concepts. Mac. Intyre might argue that we have forgotten the old truths but this does not mean that they are good truths