VIRTUE ETHICS

"Virtue ethics states that only good people can make good moral decisions."

As what James E. Faust said, “A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is

Well, I assumed that however many of us have wondered how humans could
determine right from wrong and how to live in a peaceful and fullest way without
compromising what is just. 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. Sometimes we can’t deny the fact that we are
being bombarded with how life goings on, how do morally inclined life work despite of
the uncertainty of the world, how it affects us every time reality slaps us so hard that we
can’t even comprehend why is it turning out like that even we’re doing our best to make
best out of it in every decision. Thinking that we are just pursuing the particular things
because we just want to be happy and satisfied with our life, but it turns out that we may
be happy but just for a mean time and after that something’s going to happen that
breaks our heart again. And then we found ourselves thinking about where did we go
wrong? In what point of my life did I go wrong that I failed to see the other side, or the
consequences rather. And it gives us thought about how difficult life is particularly in
making decisions, why do we need to consider someone or something for own
happiness? Considering the fact that we have freedom to say, but in reality, it seems
like we don’t have one.

Human as we are, we keep on throwing rants why our plans never go as what we
expect it to happen. Me, myself I know I am one out of those people questioning the
life’s reality. All I want is to be genuinely happy because I thought what makes life
worthy. Well, being happy makes us think that yeah this is life, but it always depends to
the reason why you’re happy or what makes us happy. There are lots of things that we
must consider becoming genuinely happy, and one of that is to make a good and just
decision. And we can’t deny the fact that it’s quite difficult to make a decision that would
satisfy us not just for the mean time but also in the future. In decision-making, it can be
difficult to make a tough decision, and even more difficult to live with that decision when
it does not pan out. And yes, it is one of life’s greatest challenges we, people like us are
facing in our everyday life. Literally, we experience things like freaking out to be exact,
especially when consequences of that specific decision come on our way. Every
decision has consequences that affect the person making the decision as well as others
involved. These consequences can be immediate or long-lasting.
The consequences of decisions can be positive, negative, or a combination of both. And
here we are questioning again, what decisions need to be made?

To answer our questions, here’s virtue ethics that will answer our queries about
the wonders of life. Not exactly to answer us directly but will surely guide us to the right
path. Virtue ethics provides guidance in ethical decision-making by its focus on the
central role of character, judgment and integrity deliberately developed over a lifetime. It
is holistic in its view of human nature incorporating both reason and passion and relies
on a foundation of worldly moral knowledge and experience rather on that from a
higher, unknowable power. Moral character building produces individual moral
responsibility for actions and helps individuals to intrinsically determine how to ethically
respond in many situations in life. Since decision-making always depends on
information, it must be based on concrete virtues that are specific to the management of
knowledge. Virtue, by definition, is the moral excellence of a person. Morally excellent
people have a character made-up of virtues valued as good. They are honest,
respectful, courageous, forgiving, and kind. In other words, it is a behavior that shows
high moral standards. Doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong. And lastly,
Virtues help us to get along better with people and to build better relationships. They
help us to avoid many of the pitfalls of life. They keep us from sabotaging our own
success. Virtues help us to keep our lives moving forward and upward.

So, the statement that says, “only good people can make good moral decisions”,
is a fact. For having Ethical decisions generate and sustain trust, demonstrate respect,
responsibility, fairness and caring, and are consistent with good citizenship. These
behaviors provide a foundation for making better decisions by setting the ground rules
for our behavior. Though it is quite difficult to attain that but in making ethical decisions,
it is necessary to perceive and eliminate unethical options and select the best ethical
alternative. Its undeniably that the moment we do ethical decisions, we can gain
strengths and values from it. A value such as integrity in terms of how we live our life,
honesty in all ways, compassionate enough to all the people, even selflessness, and
cooperation increase the personality of an individual and make us a far better human
being. It is important for each one of us to know our values and behave in a way or in a
consistent with them. And we can’t deny that good people are more capable of making
ethical decisions and can be labeled as a good decision maker. Why? It’s because
a good decision-maker chooses actions that give the best outcome for themselves and
also considering the others. They usually enter the decision-making process with an
open mind and do not let their own biases sway them. With that we can conclude that
they are fair and just. Also, good decision-makers involve others when appropriate and
use knowledge, and opinions to shape their final decisions which is very important.

Indeed, we may think life is hard, but upon doing things or making decisions
against ethical standards could only make our life harder, and worst, even hardest.
Virtue ethics encourage everyone to be a better version of yourself. We should at least
try to become a good person in order to be genuinely happy and contented. Life may
bring us down, but we must stand still and courageous enough to face against
temptations, hardships and everything that worries us. Upon doing that, we could not
just attain better life, but we could also gain wisdom from it, as well as prudence, loyalty,
honesty, temperance, bravery, magnanimity, and justice. As what virtue ethicists argue
that if we only try our best to embody these traits or even apply this to life or to share
this to anyone, then by it means we will always be in a good position to make moral
judgments. To end this, I just want to leave this statement of Plato that states,
"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we
have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We
are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." In order to live life
to the fullest, we should be a good person. A good person who lives virtuously, who
possesses and lives the virtues.