Ethics Midterm Reviewer
Ethics Midterm Reviewer
Ethics Midterm Reviewer
NATURAL LAW
Natural law is a system in which actions are seen as morally and
ethically correct if t accords with the end purpose of human nature and
human goals. Follows the fundamental maxim, ‘do good and avoid evil’.
Natural law is a system in which actions are seen as morally and
ethically correct if t accords with the end purpose of human nature and
human goals. Follows the fundamental maxim, ‘do good and avoid evil’
INTENTION/MOTIVE
Is a means towards attainment of true happiness both of a agent and
the common good.
Traditional Moral theology, presents four conditions for the double effect principle
to be applied:
We might explore how our actions are related to certain dispositions in a dynamic way
since our actions both arise from our habits and at the same time reinforce a good
disposition and a bad disposition. the Christian life, therefore, is about developing
the capacities given us by God into a disposition of virtue inclined toward the good.
Aquinas also puts forward that there is within us a conscience that directs our moral
thinking. So, we are called to heed the voice of conscience and enjoined the develop
and maintain a life of virtue.
However, these both require content, so we need something more. Being told that the
one should heed one’s conscience or that one should try to be virtuous, does very
little to guide people as to what specifically should be done in a given situation. Thus,
there is a need for clearer basis of ethics, a ground that will more concretely direct
our sense of what is right and wrong. For Aquinas this would be the natural law.
SYNTHESIS
The idea of a transcendent good prior to all being resurfaces in Aquinas in the form o
the good and loving God, who is Himself the fullness of being good and of goodness;
as Aquinas puts it, God is that which essentially is and is essentially good.” So, we
recognized that all beings are only possible as participating in the first being, which is
God himself. God’s act, like an emanation of light, is the creation of beings.
However, while beings are good because they are created by God, the goodness
possessed by being remains imperfect. “For Aquinas, only God in the fullness of his
being and goodness is perfect; all other beings are participating in this goodness, and
are good to that extent, but are imperfect since they are limited in their
participation.
“But, once again, God did not create us to simply be imperfect and to stay that way
as He leaves us alone. Instead, God, in his infinite wisdom, direct how we are to
arrive at our perfection. The toward their proper end; this end, which is for them to
reach their highest good, is to return to the divine goodness itself.
As a rational beings, we have free will. Through our capacity for reason, we are able
to judge between possibilities and to choose to direct our actions in a way or the
other. Out actions are directed toward attaining ends or goods that we desire.
In thinking about what is good for us, it is also quite possible that we end up thinking
exclusively of our own good. Aquinas reminds us that this will not do; we cannot simply
act in pursuit of our own ends or good without any regard for other people’s ends or
good. We are not isolated beings, but beings belong to a community. Since we belong
to community, we have to consider what is good for the community as well as our own
good. This can be called the common good.
We have noted earlier how God, by his wisdom, is the Creator of all beings. By
saying this, we do not only recognize God as the source of these beings, but also
acknowledge the way they have been created and the way they could return it Him,
which is the work of His divine reason itself.
Aquinas writes: “He governs all the acts and movements that are to be found in each
single creature, so the type of Divine Wisdom, as moving all things to their due end,
bears the character of law.”
Eternal law refers to what God wills for creation. All things partake in eternal law,
all beings are already created by God in a certain way intended to return to Him.
IRRATIONAL CREATURES
Which is to say that they do not think of the law or chose to obey it, but are
simply, through instinctual following of their nature, complying with the law that
God has for them.
We have consider how we, human beings, are both unique and at the same
time participating in the community of the rest of creation. Our presence in
the rest of creation does not only mean that we interact with creatures that
are not human, but that there is also in our nature something that shares in
the nature of other beings.
Aquinas then goes on to say that there is our human nature, common with other
animals, a desire that has to do with sexual intercourse and the care of one’s
offspring. As the matter of fact, animals periodically engage in sexual intercourse
at a specific time of “heat”, and this could result an offspring. In human too, that
natural inclination to engage in the sexual act and to reproduce exists.
UNIQUELY HUMAN
After the first two inclinations, Aquinas presents a third reason which states that
we have an inclination to good according to the nature or our reason. With this, we
have an natural inclination to know the truth about God and to live in society. It is
interest that this is followed by matters of both an epistemic and a social concern.
SUMMARY LESSON
THE THEORY OF NATURAL LAW
In the history of Christian thought, the dominant theory of ethics is not the Divine
Command Theory. That honor goes to the Theory of Natural Law. This theory has
three main parts.
The Theory of Natural Law rests upon a certain view of what the world is like. On
this view, the world is a rational order with values and purposes built into its very
nature. This conception derives from the Greeks, whose way of understanding the
world dominated Western thinking for over 1,700 years. A central feature of this
conception was the idea that everything in nature has a purpose.
Aristotle incorporated this idea into his system of thought around 350 B.C. when
he said that, in order to understand anything, four questions must be asked: What
is it? What is it made of? How did it come to exist? And what is it for? (The
answers might be: This is a knife, it is made of metal, it was made by a craftsman,
and it is used for cutting.) Aristotle assumed that the last question - what is it
for? - could sensibly be asked of anything whatever. Nature, he said, belongs to
the class of causes which act for the sake of something.
It seems obvious that artifacts such as knives have purposes, because craftsmen
have a purpose in mind when they make them. But what about natural objects that
we do not make? Aristotle believed that they have purposes too. One of his
examples was that we have teeth so that we can chew. Such biological examples are
quite persuasive; each part of our bodies does seem, intuitively, to have a special
purpose - eyes are for seeing, the heart is for pumping blood, and so on. But
Aristotle’s claim was not limited to organic beings. According to him, everything
has a purpose. He thought, to take a different sort of example, that rain falls so
that plants can grow. As odd as it may seem to a modern reader, Aristotle was
perfectly serious about this. He considered other alternatives, such as that the
rain falls of necessity and that this helps the plants only by coincidence, and
rejected them.
The world, therefore, is an orderly, rational system, with each thing having its own
proper place and serving its own special purpose. There is a neat hierarchy: The
rain exists for the sake of the plants, the plants exist for the sake of the animals,
and the animals exist - of course - for the sake of people, whose well- being is the
point of the whole arrangement.
[W]e must believe, first that plants exist for the sake of animals, second that all
other animals exist for the sake of man, tame animals for the use he can make of
them as well as for the food they provide; and as for wild animals, most though not
all of these can be used for food or are useful in other ways; clothing and
instruments can be made out of them. If then we are right in believing that nature
makes nothing without some end in view, nothing to no purpose, it must be that
nature has made all things specifically for the sake of man.
The Christian thinkers who came later found this view of the world to be perfectly
congenial. Only one thing was missing: God was needed to make the picture
complete. (Aristotle has denied that God was a necessary part of the picture. For
him, the worldview we have outlined was not religious; it was simply a description of
how things are.) Thus the Christian thinkers said that the rain falls to help the
plants because that is what the Creator intended, and the animals are for human
use because that is what God made them for. Values and purposes were, therefore,
conceived to be a fundamental part of the nature of things, because the world was
believed to have been created according to a divine plan.
A corollary of this way of thinking is that the laws of nature not only describe how
things are, they specify how things ought to be as well. Things are as they ought to
be when they are serving their natural purposes. When they do not, or cannot,
serve those purposes, things have gone wrong. Eyes that cannot see are defective,
and drought is a natural evil; the badness of both is explained by reference to
natural law. But there are also implications for human conduct. Moral rules are not
viewed as deriving from the laws of nature. Some ways of behaving are said to be
natural, while other are unnatural; and unnatural acts are said to be morally wrong.
Second, the Theory of Natural Law has gone out of fashion (although that does
not, of course, prove it is false) because the view of the world on which it rests is
out of keeping with modern science. The world as described by Galileo, Newton, and
Darwin has no place for facts about right and wrong. Their explanations of natural
phenomena make no reference to values or purposes. What happens just happens,
fortuitously, in the consequence of the laws of cause and effect. If the rain
benefits the plants, it is only because the plants have evolved by the laws of
natural selection in a rainy climate.
Thus modern science gives us a picture of the world as a realm of facts, where the
only natural laws are the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology, working blindly
and without purpose. Whatever values may be, they are not part of the natural
order. As for the idea that nature has made all things specifically for the sake of
man, that is only human vanity. To the extent that one accepts the worldview of
modern science, then, one will be skeptical of the Theory of Natural Law. It is no
accident that the theory was a product, not of modern thought, but of the Middle
Ages.
The third part of the theory addresses the question of moral knowledge. How are
we to go about determining what is right and what is wrong? The Divine Command
Theory says that we must consult God’s commandments. The Theory of Natural Law
gives a different answer. The natural laws that specify what we should do are laws
of reason, which we are able to grasp because God, the author of the natural
order, has made us rational beings with the power to understand that order.
Therefore, the Theory of Natural Law endorses the familiar idea that the right
thing to do is whatever course of conduct has the best reasons on its side. To use
the traditional terminology, moral judgments are dictates of reason. St. Thomas
Aquinas, the greatest of the natural-law theorists, wrote in his masterpiece the
Summa Theologica that To disparage the dictate of reason is equivalent to
condemning the command of God.
This means that the religious believer has no special access to moral truth. The
believer and the nonbeliever are in the same position. God has given both the same
powers of reasoning; and so believer and nonbeliever alike may listen to reason and
follow its directives. They function as moral agents in the same way, even though
the nonbelievers lack of faith prevents them from realizing that God is the author
of the rational order in which they participate and which their moral judgments
express.
Natural Law
What is natural law? ‘Natural’ because the goals and the major values human beings
seek are innate, that is, they are from the nature and are not selected freely by
individual persons or communities. Since human nature does not change, the basic
goals are constant and basic morality does not change. It is considered ‘law’
because by reasoning about the innate goals and values we can determine actions,
which is oftentimes expressed in norms or laws that enables the person to achieve
their goals.
Natural Law is a system in which actions are seen as morally or ethically correct if
it accords with the end purpose of human nature and human goals. Natural Law
follows the fundamental maxim, ‘do good and avoid evil’. A follower of natural law
contends that God is the creator. They believed that God’s law is reflected in
nature and in His creation. So by following man’s heart therefore they can
recognized the law of God.
The natural law method of seeking moral norms and evaluating human acts has a
long history in the catholic community. On the other hand, it is closely associated
to St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas begins his natural law theory by differentiating
human acts from acts of man. Human acts as Aquinas expressed proceeds from the
will and the act of man is an action that does not proceeds from the will. It is only
the human act that is being determined as moral or immoral because its origin is
the exercise of the will. The morality of the human act depends primarily on the
‘object’ rationally chosen by the deliberate will (John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor,
1993). The moral object can be described as the intention inherent in the action
that one is actually performing, the moral object specifies the human act and is
the purpose that the act accomplishes as a means to the ultimate goal of life. For
example, ‘If I gave money to the poor, I am performing an act of charity, a human
act judged by its moral object or the intention inherent in the act. Although the
moral object or finis operis is the fundamental element of the morality of the
human act, there is also the circumstance. Circumstance is a part of the human act
that must be considered in order to evaluate the total moral act (Summa
Theologica, 1947, I-II, q. 18, a. 3). Circumstance can be considered in various
moral questions, thus, we might ask, ‘who’, ‘when’, ‘how much’ or ‘in what manner’.
Example, a physician who injects a debilitated patient with a fate dose drugs to
end his suffering. The moral object of the act (what actually the physician intends
to do) is to kill the patient and it is this intention that makes the physical act of
the injection a moral evil. The circumstance of the physician’s act, e.g., time, place,
and condition of the patient cannot make this act good. Finally, the ultimate reason
that determines the moral act is the intention. Intention/motive is a means
towards the attainment of true happiness both of the agent and the common good.
Thus, in the example, killing an innocent person to help relieve pain cannot be
justified. That is why as Ashley and O’Rouke said, ‘we may not do evil for good to
come out of it’ (Originally is taken from Rom. 3:8, Ashley, OP and O’Rouke OP,
2001).
The presentation at hand speaks about the norms of moral act, however, if given a
situation or alternative wherein there is the conflicting issues as to what course of
action will prevail, Aquinas designed a method known as ‘Principle of Double-Effect’.
This principle is used in order to judge the moral acceptability of the human act
that has two effects, one is good and the other is evil. Traditional Moral theology,
presents four conditions for the double effect principle to be applied:
Situations by which the principle of double-effect can be seen and applied and is
not limited to it: pain, restlessness, delirious, uncontrolled seizures and depression
caused by illness. Some of the treatment may have an adverse and untoward effect
that it is not intended. Example, the use of marijuana to control a certain pain and
wasting; the euphoric effects are the primary intention even if the undesired
effects are permitted. Another one is applying sedition to a very restless and
delirious patient (as in rabies) it may require dangerous drugs or even anesthesia
even if these will shorten the life of the patient. It is to be remembered here,
that the primary purpose of the health care provider is to provide comfort and
ease suffering. Indeed, good intention demands impartiality and absence of
conflict of interest. Though, this is not always possible, still, decision-making at
the end must recognize the individual conscience that requires prudence of action.
Prudence, as Aquinas said, ‘is right reason in action’.
DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS
Introduction
The term deontology comes from the Greek word deon, meaning duty. The theory
of deontology states we are morally obligated to act in accordance with a certain
set of principles and rules regardless of outcome. In religious deontology, the
principles derive from divine commandment so that under religious laws, we are
morally obligated not to steal, lie, or cheat. Thus, deontological theories and duties
have existed for many centuries. Immanuel Kant, the theory’s celebrated
proponent, formulated the most influential form of a secular deontological moral
theory in 1788. Unlike religious deontological theories, the rules (or maxims) in
Kant’s deontological theory derive from human reason.
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in the Prussian city of Königsberg. He essentially
spent his whole adult life at the university and never truly travelled outside of the
city. He only stopped working at the university three years before his death. He
was a philosopher and scientist specializing in many areas, including mathematics,
astrophysics, geography and anthropology. He wrote several dense, difficult-to-
read but highly influential texts regarding metaphysics, metaethics and practical
morality, science, history and politics. He was the first recorded scholar to
suggest that some of the faint nebulae visible with a telescope are actually
separate universes in the sky.
As with many scholars of his time, Kant’s new ideas and published works about the
nature of reality and free will were widely condemned, but they have remained
prominently influential to this day. In terms of ethics, the most significant of his
works are Groundwork in the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), Critique of Practical
Reason (1788), and Metaphysics of Morals (1798). These texts constitute the
foundation of Kant’s own moral philosophy.
Deontological theories differ from utilitarian theories in several key ways. The
most notable difference is utilitarianism aims at a goal of greatest happiness (or
the best consequence) and justifies any act that achieves that goal. Deontological
theories hold that some acts are always wrong, even if the act leads to an
admirable outcome. Actions in deontology are always judged independently of their
outcome. An act can be morally bad but may unintentionally lead to a favorable
outcome.
Kant is responsible for the most prominent and well-known form of deontological
ethics. Kant’s moral theory is based on his view of the human being as having the
unique capacity for rationality. No other animal possesses such a propensity for
reasoned thought and action, and it is exactly this ability that requires human
beings to act in accordance with and for the sake of moral law or duty. Kant
believes human inclinations, emotions and consequences should play no role in moral
action; therefore, the motivation behind an action must be based on obligation and
well thought out before the action takes place. Morality should, in theory, provide
people with a framework of rational rules that guide and prevent certain actions
and are independent of personal intentions and desires.
According to Kant, the moral worth of an action is determined by the human will,
which is the only thing in the world that can be considered good without
qualification. Good will is exercised by acting according to moral duty/law. Moral
law consists of a set of maxims, which are categorical in nature – we are bound by
duty to act in accordance with categorical imperatives.
Categorical Imperatives
“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it
should become a universal law without contradiction.” – Immanuel Kant, Groundwork
of Metaphysic of Morals
Kant states that a true moral proposition must not be tied to any particular
conditions, including the identity of the person making the decision. A moral maxim
must be disconnected from the particular physical details surrounding its
proposition and should be applicable to any rational being. According to Kant, we
first have a perfect duty not to act by maxims that result in logical contradictions.
Second, we have imperfect duties, which are still based on pure reason but allow
for interpretation regarding how they are performed. Because these duties depend
loosely on the subjective preferences of mankind, they are not as strong as
perfect duties but are still morally binding. Unlike perfect duties, people do not
attract blame if they do not complete an imperfect duty, but they receive praise if
they complete it, for they have gone beyond basic duty and taken responsibility
upon themselves. Imperfect duties are circumstantial, meaning that one can not
reasonably exist in a constant state of performing that duty. What differentiates
perfect and imperfect duties is that imperfect duties are never truly completed.
The first formulation of the categorical imperative appears similar to the Golden
Rule: “Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself.” Kant’s first
categorical imperative sounds like a paraphrase of the Golden Rule. However, the
Golden Rule is neither purely formal nor universally binding. It is empirical in the
sense that applying it requires context; for example, if you don’t want others to hit
you, then don’t hit them. Also, it is a hypothetical imperative in the sense that it
can be formulated, and its “if-then” relationship is open for dispute.
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the
person of any other, never merely as a means to an end but always at the same time
as an end.” – Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of Metaphysic of Morals
This imperative states that every rational action must be considered not only a
principle, but also an end. Most ends are subjective in nature because they need
only be pursued if they are in line with a hypothetical imperative. (A hypothetical
imperative is a demand of reason that is conditional. It tells us how to act to
achieve a specific goal e.g. I must drink when I need to slake my thirst.)
For an end to be objective, it would need to be pursued categorically. The free will
is the source of all rational action. Because the autonomous will is the one and only
source of moral action, it contradicts the first formulation of the categorical
imperative to claim that a person is merely a means to some other end instead of
an end in him or herself.
Based on this, Kant derives the second formulation from the first. A person has a
perfect duty not to use themselves or others merely as a means to some other end.
For example, someone who owns slaves would be asserting a moral right to own a
slave by asserting their rights over another person. However, this reasoning
violates the categorical imperative because it denies the basis for free rational
action and disregards the person as an end in themselves. In Kantian ethics, one
cannot treat another person as a means to an end. Under the second formulation of
the categorical imperative, a person must maintain her moral duty to seek an end
that is equal for all people.
“Therefore, every rational being must so act as if he were through his maxim
always a legislating member in the universal kingdom of ends.” – Immanuel Kant,
Groundwork of Metaphysic of Morals
Using reasoned judgment we can apply this formula to any maxim and discover
whether it is morally permissible under deontological ethics. Let’s take, for
example, the act of picking flowers from the local park. The flowers are very
pretty, and one may want to take some home. Essentially, this requires adopting a
maxim that supports doing whatever one wants to do. Using the formula of the
universal law (categorical imperative), there are a few irrationalities and
contradictions that arise from the adoption of such a maxim as law. If everyone
were to do this, there would be no flowers left in the park, and the act contradicts
the original motive for picking the flowers. The better option is to go to a shop and
order or plant one’s own flowers.
There are a few acts that are always forbidden, such as lying, which negatively
affects trust between people and the meaning of truth. This rule remains the case
even when lying has advantageous or even morally admirable consequences. Imagine
a psychotic criminal wants to kill your colleague, who fired the psychotic. If you lie
about the whereabouts of your colleague, then an innocent life will be saved. It
seems moral duty forbids you from lying. However, a higher moral duty trumps the
duty not to lie. That is, the obligation not to kill or help others in killing, is a higher
moral duty that we should follow.
Kant expressed the categorical imperative in a few different ways. The most
important of these is the formula of humanity: “Act in such a way that you treat
humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the
same time as an end and never simply as a means.”
This is a personal perspective on the same moral theory. To fail to do this would be
to treat others in a way that contradicts the moral law. For example, if I steal a
book from a friend, I am treating him as a means only (to obtain a book). If I ask
to have his book, I am respecting his right to say no and am thereby treating him
as an end in himself, not as a means to an end. If I only ask for the book in order
to appear nice and hope that my friend is likely to do more things for me in the
future, then I am still treating him as a means only. It is true that everyone uses
people as a means to an end. Bus/taxi-drivers get us where we want to go; factory
workers are the means to producing objects and ultimately profit for their
employer. But using people only to get what we want and consistently disrespecting
their human worth is against moral law. An example of this would be a factory
owner providing unsafe working conditions, such as Foxconn in China or factories in
countries that impose inhumane working conditions and pay less than minimum wage.
Criticisms
At times Kantian moral duty seems to contradict our natural inclinations and
common sense. If we obey the moral law rather than our intuitions, we are acting
morally. Deontological ethics is weaker when it comes to informing us how to live
well or developing virtues of character.
Virtue Ethics
To illustrate the difference among three key moral philosophies, ethicists Mark
White and Robert Arp refer to the film The Dark Knight where Batman has the
opportunity to kill the Joker. Utilitarians, White and Arp suggest, would endorse
killing the Joker. By taking this one life, Batman could save multitudes.
Deontologists, on the other hand, would reject killing the Joker simply because it’s
wrong to kill. But a virtue ethicist “would highlight the character of the person who
kills the Joker. Does Batman want to be the kind of person who takes his enemies’
lives?” No, in fact, he doesn’t.
So, virtue ethics helps us understand what it means to be a virtuous human being.
And, it gives us a guide for living life without giving us specific rules for resolving
ethical dilemmas.
Virtue Ethics (or Virtue Theory) is an approach to Ethics that emphasizes an
individual's character as the key element of ethical thinking, rather than rules
about the acts themselves (Deontology) or their consequences (Consequentialism).
Eudaimonism is the classical formulation of Virtue Ethics. It holds that the proper
goal of human life is eudaimonia (which can be variously translated as "happiness",
"well-being" or the "good life"), and that this goal can be achieved by a lifetime of
practicing "arête" (the virtues) in one's everyday activities, subject to the
exercise of "phronesis" (practical wisdom) to resolve any conflicts or dilemmas
which might arise. Indeed, such a virtuous life would in itself constitute
eudaimonia, which should be seen as an objective, not a subjective, state,
characterized by the well-lived life, irrespective of the emotional state of the
person experiencing it.
Ethics of Care was developed mainly by Feminist writers (e.g. Annette Baier) in the
second half of the 20th Century, and was motivated by the idea that men think in
masculine terms such as justice and autonomy, whereas woman think in feminine
terms such as caring. It calls for a change in how we view morality and the virtues,
shifting towards virtues exemplified by women, such as taking care of others,
patience, the ability to nurture, self-sacrifice, etc, which have been marginalized
because society has not adequately valued the contributions of women. It
emphasizes the importance of solidarity, community and relationships rather than
universal standards and impartiality. It argues that instead of doing the right thing
even if it requires personal cost or sacrificing the interest of family or community
members (as the traditional Consequentialist and deontological approaches
suggest), we can, and indeed should, put the interests of those who are close to us
above the interests of complete strangers.
The term "virtue ethics" is a relatively recent one, essentially coined during the
20th Century revival of the theory, and it originally defined itself by calling for a
change from the then dominant normative theories of Deontology and
Consequentialism.
Virtue ethics was derived from or is closely associated to Aristotle’s
Nichomachean Ethics. The term virtue comes from the latin word ‘virtus’ which
means manhood or perhaps ‘worth’. Thus, the worth of any action of man is based
from virtue instead from duty or consequence, it does not posit a question, ‘what
shall I do or perhaps what rule I ought to follow?’ Rather, how should I carry out
my life if I am to live well?’ The emphasis therefore is on what an individual can do
to produce the sort of character that instinctively does the right thing. Thus,
virtue ethics holds that it is not only important to do the right thing but equally
one must have the right disposition, motivation, and traits for being good and doing
right. Consider for example, a head nurse who meets her moral obligations simply
because it is her obligations, the head nurse detest her functions and hates having
to spend time with every patient and with her colleagues who come through the
door of her office. She cared not of being of service to the people that so demand
according to what she sworn before the public as a public servant. All she wants is
simply to follow the rules and duties that was given to her by virtue of having the
position, although the nurse does not violate the rules and does not act immorally
from the point of view of ‘duty’ however, something in her character is defective
morally. What is absent from the nurse is the ideal character of admirable
compassion and dedication guiding the lives of her colleagues and the many health
professionals, who simply merely end to rule-following behavior.
It creates to have a virtuous person who does not only follow rules or achieve good
consequences of actions.
It unifies reason and emotion because it attempts to establish a proper disposition
not only to act in certain ways but also to feel in certain ways.
Virtue ethics emphasizes ‘moderation’, that is, between excess and deficiency.
SUMMARY
Aristotle virtue ethics starts with recognizing that is the ultimate purpose or
telos of a person. As the ultimate purpose, happiness is deemed as the final and
self-sufficient end of a person. It is by realizing the highest goal of a person that
she achieves happiness that is also considered as the greatest good. Attaining
happiness is arrived at when she performs her function, which is to act in
accordance to reason in an outstanding manner. It is in doing her function well that
virtue, excellence, or arete is realized.
To carry out the task of performing her function well, person has to
understand the structure of the soul where her reason will operate. Aristotle
shows that human soul is divided into the irrational and rational faculties. The
vegetative aspect of the irrational part of the soul cannot be directed by reason
because it does the natural processes of the soul that are responsible for the
physical growth. The appetitive aspect of the irrational part of the soul, on the
other hand, is driven by impulses which are, in general, contrary to reason but can
be acted out obeying the dictates of reason. Therefore, reason can manage the
appetitive aspect, and impulses can be handled well by reason.
The rational faculty of the soul is the part where excellence can be attained.
Part of the rational faculty of the soul is the intellectual aspect concerned with
the act of knowing. Excellence on this faculty is achieved through learning. One
learns well that is why she gains philosophical and practical wisdom. Philosophical
wisdom is the knowledge of the general principles that constitute reality, while
practical wisdom is the knowledge of determining the appropriates action in a given
situation. One can learn from experience and therefore can gain sufficient
understanding on what to do.
Aristotle points out that having intellectual excellence does not make one
into a morally good person. Knowing the good and being able to determine the
appropriate action in a given situation do not make her do the good automatically.
Practical wisdom, as such, is still in the realm of the intellectual aspect of the soul.
The moral aspect of the rational faculty concerns itself with the act of doing the
good. She becomes virtuous or excellent in doing the good by habitual performance.
To be a morally virtuous individual is a constant carrying out of the act of
goodness. The unethical person, on the other hand, is someone who habitually
performs bad deeds. This habitual action for Aristotle is what forms the character
of the person. Her identity is associated with accomplishing the good or bad action.
Virtue ethics is concerned primarily with the task of developing a good character.
VIRTUE ETHICS
From Aristotle to the 21st century
Virtue Ethics:
The goal of life is well-being (happiness) and the means to attain it is
by acquiring a virtuous character.
It is the ethical framework that is concerned with understanding
the good as a matter of developing the virtuous character of a
person.
Virtue ethics, on the other hand, focuses on the formation of
one’s character brought about by determining and doing virtuous
acts.
Virtue ethics was derived from or is closely associated to
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. The term virtue comes from the
latin word ‘virtus’ which means manhood or perhaps ‘worth’. Thus,
the word of any action of man is based from virtue instead from
duty or consequence, it does not posit a question, ‘what shall I do
or perhaps what rule I ought to follow?’ Rather, how should I
carry out my life if I am to live well?’ The emphasis therefore is
on what an individual can do to produce the sort of character that
instinctively does the right thing. Thus, virtue ethics holds that
it is not only important to do the right thing but equally one must
have the right disposition, motivation, and traits for being good
and doing right.
Now, such a thing happiness, above all else, is held to be; for this we
choose always for itself and never for the sake of something else, but
honor, pleasure, reason, and every virtue we choose indeed for
themselves (for if nothing resulted form them we should still choose
each of them), but we choose them also for the sake of happiness,
judging that by means of them we shall be happy. Happiness, on the
other hand, no one chooses for the sake of these, nor in general, for
anything other than itself.
Happiness for Aristotle is the only self-sufficient aim that one can
aspire for. No amount of wealth or power can be more fulfilling than
having achieved the condition of happiness. One can imagine a life of
being wealthy, powerful, and experiencing pleasurable feelings and
yet, such life is still not satisfying without happiness. Once happiness
is achieved, things such as wealth, power, and pleasurable feelings just
give value-added benefits in life. The true measure of well-being for
Aristotle is not by means of richness of fame but by the condition of
having attained a happy life.
In carrying out a morally virtuous life, one needs the intellectual guide
of practical wisdom in steering the self toward the right choices and
actions. Aristotle is careful in making a sharp distinction between
moral and intellectual virtue.
In itself, having practical wisdom or the excellence in knowing
what to act upon does not make someone already morally virtuous.
Knowing the good is different from determining and acting in what is
good. But a morally good person has to achieve the intellectual virtue
of practical wisdom to perform the task of being moral.
This distinction draws a sharp contrast between Aristotle’s
understanding of the dynamics of knowledge and action from that of
Socrates’s view that knowledge already contains the ability of choice
or action
This is why some say that all the virtues are forms of practical
wisdom and why Socrates, in one aspect, was on the right track while
in another, he went astray; in thinking that all the virtues were forms
of practical wisdom, he was wrong, but in saying they implied practical
wisdom, he was right. This is confirmed by the fact that even now, all
men, when they define virtue, after naming the state of character and
its object, add “that (state) which is in accordance with the right
rule”; now the right is that which is in accordance with practical
wisdom. All men, seem somehow to divine that this kind of state is
virtue, viz, that which is in accordance with practical wisdom.
It seems that for Socrates, moral goodness is already within the
realm of intellectual excellence. Knowing the good implies the ability
to perform morally virtuous acts. For Aristotle, however, having
intellectual excellence does not necessarily mean that one already has
the capacity of doing the good. Knowing the good that needs to be
done is different from doing the good that one needs to accomplish.
Therefore, rational faculty of a person tells us that she is
capable of achieving two kinds of virtue moral and intellectual. In
discussing moral virtue, Aristotle says that it is attained by means of
habit. A morally virtuous man for Aristotle is someone who habitually
determines the good and does the right actions. Moral virtue is
acquired through habit. Being morally good is a process of getting
used to doing the proper act. The saying “practice makes perfect” can
be applied to this aspect of a person. Therefore, for Aristotle, a
person is not initially good by nature.
Moral Virtue and Mesotes
Developing a practical wisdom involves learning from experiences.
Knowing the right thing to do when one is confronted by a choice is not
easy.
Knowledge is not inherent to a person
One needs to develop this knowledge by exercising the faculty of
practical reason in her daily life. In attaining practical wisdom, she may
initially make mistakes on how reason is applied to a particular moral
choice or action. But through these mistakes, she will be able to sustain
practical wisdom to help steer another’s ability to know morally right
choices and action. In other words, she is able to mature and grow in
her capacity on knowing what to do and living a morally upright life.
This is why when it comes to life choices, one can seek the advice of
elders in the community, those who gained rich life experiences and
practical wisdom, because they would be able to assist someone’s moral
deliberation. Parents can advice their children how to behave in front
of family members and relatives. Senior members of the community
like priests, counsellors, and leaders may also guide the young members
on how relationships with others are fostered.
Based on Aristotle, a morally virtuous person is person is
concerned with achieving her appropriate action in a manner that is
neither excessive nor deficient. In other words, virtue is the middle or
the intermediary point in between extremes. One has to function in a
state that her personality manifest the right amount of feelings,
passions, and ability for a particular act. Generally, feelings and
passions are neutral which means that, in themselves, they are neither
morally right nor wrong. When one shows a feeling of anger, we cannot
immediately construe it as morally wrong act. But the rightness or
wrongness of feelings, passions, and abilities lies in the degree of their
application in a given situation. It is right to get angry at an offensive
remark but it is not right to get angry at everyone just because you
were offended by someone. One can be excessive in the manner by
which she manifest these feelings, passions, and abilities. But can also
be deficient in the way she express these
A morally virtuous person targets the mesotes. For Aristotle, the
task of targeting the mean is always difficult because every situation
is different from one another. Thus, the mesotes is constantly moving
depending on the circumstance where she is in. The mean is not the
same for all individuals. As pointed out by Aristotle , the mean is simply
an arithmetical proportion. Therefore, the task of being moral involves
seriously looking into and understanding a situation and assessing
properly every particular detail relevant to the determination of the
mean. One can be angry with someone, but the degree and state of
anger depends accordingly with the nature of the person she is angry
with. The aid of reason dictates how humans should show different
anger toward a child and a mature individual. Mesotes determines
whether the act applied is not excessive or deficient. Likewise, an
individual cannot be good at doing something haphazardly but reason
demands a continuous habituation of a skill to perfect an act. Targeting
the middle entails being immersed in a moral circumstance,
understanding the experience, and eventually, developing the knowledge
of identifying the proper way or the mean to address a particular
situation.
Moral virtue is firstly the condition arrived at by a person who
has a character identified out of her habitual exercise of particular
actions. One’s character is seen as a growth in terms of the continuous
preference of the good. Secondly, in moral virtue, the action done that
normally manifest feelings and passions is chosen because it is the
middle. The middle does not fail short or is exercise of the proper
proportion by which these feelings or passion should be expressed.
Aristotle adds that the middle is relative to us. This does not imply
that mesotes totally depends in what the person identifies as the
middle. Such case would signify that Aristotle adheres to relativism.
But Aristotle’s middle is not relative to the person but to the situation
and the circumstance that once is in. This means that in choosing the
middle o
Excess Middle Deficiency
The Mean
Virtues and the Mean
Vice of Deficiency Virtue Vice of Excess
Alasdair MacIntyre
After Virtue (1981)
Modern moral philosophy is bankrupt; it must recover the
tradition of virtue.
Importance of Narrative as a
“live tradition” – you need to know where ethics has come from.
Virtues change over time.
Philippa Foot
Tries to modernise Aristotle.
Rosalind Hursthouse
A neo-Aristotelian – Aristotle was wrong on women and slaves, and
there is no need to be limited to his list of virtues.
Virtue &Habit
For Aristotle, virtue is something that is practiced and thereby
learned—it is habit (hexis).
This has clear implications for moral education, for Aristotle
obviously thinks that you can teach people to be virtuous.
Role models become very important
At school?
Competence
Teamwork
Social justice
Mellowness of heart