Scribespark

Objectives

• Define and appropriately use important terms such as Eudaimonia and Golden Mean
• Demonstrate knowledge of major arguments for and problems with virtue ethics
• Apply ethical concepts and principles to address moral concerns.

I. Crito

• A. Socrates’ Last Days
  • Imprisoned and sentenced to death
  • Crito argues he should escape
  • Socrates disagrees
• B. Socrates’ Argument
  • I’d be breaking the law
  • One must perform right actions. Wrong actions damage the soul, and the soul is the most valuable part of the self
  • It is never right to do wrong, even if one has been wronged
    
    

II. Virtue Ethics

• A. Contextualizing Virtue Ethics
  • Wide variety of ethical approaches
  • Return to the classical approach in the mid 1900s
• B. What Sort of Person Should I Strive to Be?
  • Virtue ethics is concerned with character
  • A moral exemplar has to have good judgment, be able to contemplate and debate all sides of a moral issue, have the strength to act on knowledge of the right thing
  • A virtuous person has prudence, the ability to choose wisely
  • A person discovers virtue in childhood and develops virtue through a lifetime of training, experience and practice
  • One becomes virtuous by being virtuous
  • Moral virtue is a trait of character, performed habitually, that would be good for anyone to have
  • The Teleology (or purpose) of Human Life
    • Inevitably, all things are desired for something else
      • Food for health, money for security and social opportunity...
      • ...until you get to 'happiness'
    • Eudemonia (Happiness/Human Flourishing) desired for its own sake
    • This makes eudaimonia the highest good
    • Happiness is a way of being in the world
    • One seeks Happiness by being a virtuous person
    • You reach your highest potential by seeking the moral Golden Mean
      
      

III. Moral Virtue and the Golden Mean

• Aristotle defines Virtue as the Golden Middle State between two moral extremes
• Greek emphasis on balance and proportion
• The virtuous person is one who has found balance
• The Golden Mean represents the highest quality of life and human flourishing
• Decoding what is virtuous is prudence
• How to Be a Moral Person
  • Know what you’re doing
  • Deliberately choose for its own sake
  • Act consistently
    
    

IV. Advantages to Virtue Ethics

• Moral motivation
• Doubts the “ideal” of impartiality
  
  

V. Objections to Virtue Ethics

• Founded on a tautology
• Difficult to define character traits
• Does not consider overall consequences 
• Difficult to choose between opposing virtues