L.P.

# 4
Lesson—2abc
“Aristotle’s
Virtue Ethics”
P R E PA R E D B Y:

BRO. CARLOS B. DAVID O.P.

Your best quote that reflects your
approach… “It’s one small step for
man, one giant leap for mankind.”

FULTON JOHN SHEEN WAS AN AMERICAN BISHOP OF THE CATHOLIC

CHURCH KNOWN FOR HIS PREACHING AND ESPECIALLY HIS WORK ON
TELEVISION AND RADIO. ORDAINED A PRIEST OF THE DIOCESE OF PEORIA
IN 1919, SHEEN QUICKLY BECAME A RENOWNED THEOLOGIAN, EARNING
THE CARDINAL MERCIER PRIZE FOR INTERNATIONAL PHILOSOPHY IN 1923
 Intended Learning Outcomes
• Articulate what virtue ethics is.
• Cite some criticisms or questions against virtue ethics.
• Articulate what natural law ethics is.
• Apply natural law ethics.
• Articulate the Duty ethical framework, and
• Differentiate what is legally right from what is morally right.
 Abstraction
Virtue or character ethics
• An ethical act is the action that a virtuous person would do in the
same circumstances.
• Virtue ethics is person based rather than action.
• It looks at the virtue or moral character of the person carrying out
an action, rather than at ethical duties and rules or the
consequences of particular actions.
 Abstraction (cont’d)

• Virtue ethics does not only deal with the rightness or wrongness of
individual actions.
• It provides guidance as to the sort of characteristics and behaviors
a good person will seek to achieve.
• In that way, virtue ethics is concerned with the whole of a person’s
life, rather than particular episodes or actions.
• A good person is someone who lives virtuously— who possesses
and lives the virtues.
 Basic Framework of Virtue Ethics:
What type of a person should you be?
Premise 1: An action is right iff it is what a virtuous agent would do in
similar circumstances.

Premise 1a: A virtuous agent is one who acts virtuously, i.e., one who
has and exercises the virtues.

Premise 2: A virtue is a character trait a human being needs to flourish

or live well.
 Overview of Ethical Systems: Virtue Ethics

Rather than focusing on what we ought to do, Virtue ethics offers a

distinctive approach whereby we focus on human character asking
the question, “What should I be?”
Thus, ethical life involves envisioning ideals for human life and
embodying those ideals in one’s life. Virtues are ways in which we
embody those ideals.
 Overview of Ethical Systems: Virtue Ethics

Virtue is an excellence of some sort.

Originally the word meant “strength” and referred to as
“manliness.”
In Aristotle’s ethics (arete) is used which is trans. as “excellences of
various types.”
 Overview of Ethical Systems: Virtue Ethics
Aristotle says there are 2 types of virtue:
Intellectual virtues:
--excellences of the mind (e.g., ability to understand, reason, & judge
well);
Moral virtues:
--learned by repetition (e.g., practicing honesty we become honest. To
be virtuous requires knowledge, practice, & consistent effort at
character building.
 Overview of Ethical Systems: Virtue Ethics
Aristotle (384-322): The function of man is reason (the good of the thing is
when it performs its function well) which is peculiar to him.

Thus, the function of man is reason and the life that is distinctive of
humans is the life in accordance with reason.
If the function of man is reason, then the good man is the man who
reasons well.
This is the life of excellence (eudaimonia; human flourishing & well-
being).
 Overview of Ethical Systems: Virtue Ethics
Though we are naturally suited to moral goodness, we don’t automatically
develop such inclinations
Your habits & inclinations develop with practice; what you sow is what you
reap.
Carefully cultivate moral goodness by rigorous practice
In order to desire to act virtuously you must carefully and consistently practice
doing right until it becomes habitual & natural
With practice & diligence you can develop the habits & inclinations of a
virtuous person.
 Overview of Ethical Systems: Virtue Ethics
Ideal of virtue is doing the right thing because you want to do the
right thing: you desire to act virtuously
If you act selfishly then you will become a selfish person.
Eventually what feels right to you may be very wrong.
Thus, choose to be virtuous. Desire + judgment must agree.
 What is Virtue Ethics?
Virtue Ethics emphasizes the development of character as its central
theme rather than trying to define 'goodness' or 'rightness’.
It is a eudaemonistic theory as it holds 'happiness' to be our highest
goal.
According to Aristotle, we attain happiness by cultivating both
intellectual and moral virtue.
We become virtuous by habit: we deliberately and consistently choose
the mean between excess and deficiency until it becomes second-
nature.
 What is Virtue Ethics? (cont’d)

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is

not an act, but a habit.”

~ Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

Virtue = excellence:
 Intellectual virtue can be taught.

 A good person succeeds at rational activity.

 Moral virtue is acquired through excellent

habits.

 We become good by doing good things.

 We become virtuous by practicing virtuous

acts.
 Virtue Ethics: What kind of person should I be?

What is a virtue?
A virtue is a habit of excellence, a beneficial tendency, a skilled
disposition that enables a person to realize the crucial potentialities
that constitute proper human flourishing (eudaimonia).
What is a habit? A disposition to think, feel, desire, and act in a
certain way without having a tendency to consciously will to do so.
What is a character: The sum-total of one’s habits, tendencies, and
well-being.
 Four Cardinal Virtues:
• Temperance- habitual moderation in the indulgence of the appetites or
passions
• Courage-  mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger,
fear, or difficulty. 
• Prudence- the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason
• Justice- the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or
moral rightness:
•Piety (reverence to the gods) is sometimes considered a fifth virtue —
the quality of being religious or reverent
 Common Criticisms of Virtue Ethics (VE)
•Vast differences on what constitutes a virtue (e.g., different people, societies,
opinions, etc.).

•VE lacks clarity in resolving moral conflicts.

•VE is self-centered because its primary concern is the agent’s own character.
•“Well-being” is a master value & all other things are valuable only to the extent
that they can contribute to it.
•VE is imprecise: It fails to give us any help with the practicalities of how we
should behave.
 Common Criticisms of Virtue Ethics (VE)
VE leaves us “hostage to luck” for only some will attain moral
maturity; others will not.
Moreover, life is very fragile. One small misstep and it will cost you
everything; it will forever be beyond your reach.
 New Material
 We will now turn to examine Theistic Deontological
Ethics with Natural Law Theory
 This time we will explore Thomas Aquinas’ “four
cardinal virtues” and Introduce Kant’s deontological
model as a model that became secular.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Learning Packet 4—Lesson 2b
St. Thomas’ Natural Law Ethics
1. Articulate what natural law ethics is.
2. Apply natural law ethics.
 Meaning of Natural Law
Based on the phrase “natural law ethics” what is ethical is what the natural
law says.
What is natural law?
Natural Law is the “ordinance of Divine Wisdom, which is made known to us
by reason and which requires the observance of the moral order.”
It may also be defined to be “The eternal law as far as it was made known by
human reason.”
By the eternal law, we mean all that God necessarily decrees from eternity.
That part of the eternal law which reason reveals as directive of human acts,
we call the natural law….
 Meaning of Natural Law
Eternal law is what God wills for creation.
We are part of God’s creation and so we are part of God’s
eternal law.
We may not be able to understand the eternal fully given our
limitations.
However, by reason we have a grasp or a sense of the
eternal law. This natural law.
 Deontological Framework
An action is right if and only if (iff) it is in accordance with a
moral rule or principle.
◦ This is a purely formal specification, forging a link
between the concepts of right and action and moral rule,
and gives one no guidance until one knows what a moral
rule is.
 Deontological Framework
◦ So, the next thing the theory needs is a premise about that: A moral rule is one that
would have been historically:

A. Theistic:
1. Given to us by God;
2. Is required by Natural Law (theistic connection);

B. Secular (though can still be connected to God):

1. Is laid on us by reason.
2. Is required by rationality;
3. Would command universal acceptance;
4. Would be the object of choice of all rational beings.
 Deontological Ethics
• In sum, we should choose actions based on their inherent,
intrinsic worth;
• Evangelical approaches to ethics are deontological because
it presupposes Scripture as revelation.
•“Deontological” comes from the Greek word “deon”,
meaning that which is binding, in particular a binding duty.
So, you are bound to your duty.
 END OF THE LESSON …..
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