Is Ethics based on Virtue? – an adequate introduction on how to live a good life and develop moral character

John Allman, “Is Ethics based on Virtue?” (1998)

Part of a series “The Examined Life” which brings theories of ethics to bear on contemporary life, this program considers Aristotle and other ancient Greek philosophers’ ideas of how to live a good life and achieve moral character through cultivating virtue and looks at what virtue ethics can and can’t offer us moderns looking for a model of the good life that we can follow. The program takes the form of a series of interviews with academics and philosophers who explain what virtue ethics is and is not, augmented by voice-over narration, and scenes of people going about their daily lives. The entire program is anchored by a scenes of a man playing a piano which provide a calming musical soundtrack against which exposition is laid out.

The program is good in explaining what virtue ethics is and how it has come to be an attractive philosophy for those wanting to put moral principles into practice in everyday life. Virtue ethics involves thinking about one’s life as a whole and thinking about it as having a narrative one imposes on it instead of it being a string of incidents that might have meaning or direction imposed by others or indeed no meaning or direction at all. The goal of virtue ethics is to achieve eudaimonia (the satisfaction that having a complete life brings) and cultivating and practising the virtues that will achieve it. To have a virtue, one approaches it as if it were a skill or talent to develop: it must be practised until it becomes habit and to practise it, one acquires knowledge of the virtue and what it involves by observing and copying others. Reason helps one to acquire knowledge of virtue and together with emotion and appetite which it also moderates, one will gain wisdom, courage, self-discipline and commitment to practise virtue. Virtue itself is defined as the middle ground or mean between an excess of a quality and the excess of its opposite: for example, courage is the middle ground between cowardice and fear on the one hand, and foolhardiness and arrogance on the other.

The appeal of virtue ethics is made obvious: it considers emotion, social relationships and social responsibilities, and personal history and long-term commitment in the development of character. Continuity of life is emphasised. At the same time, there are aspects of virtue ethics that we would say make it an incomplete and imperfect theory to apply to our lives: virtue ethics does not give us clear rules as to what is right or wrong, and does not tell people what to do and what not to do in particular situations, especially extreme situations; it can’t guarantee that everyone who practises virtue ethics will end up stronger morally; and it can’t predict that different societies, practising virtue ethics, will end up with the same or similar sets of virtues and be good societies to live in. Virtues are simply traits of personality and character that become habitual by practice and by themselves are not the opposite of sins. People in one society can agree what traits of character are good and should be encouraged while people in another society might agree on different traits of character and encourage those to be developed. (It could be said though that certain character traits are universal across all societies: even societies of gangsters and other crooks will agree that, among themselves, loyalty, trust, capacity for hard work and self-control among other virtues are necessary.) Virtue ethics, in other words, is simply one guide to living a good life and achieving satisfaction but by itself cannot tell us what exactly virtues are and what they are not, and does not lay down the law as to what people should or should not do.

The program offers a way out: virtue ethics can be combined in an individual’s personal philosophy with other systems of ethics such as utilitarian ethics (based on self-interest and how to bring about good for the maximum number of people), Kantian ethics (based on absolute rationality) or existential ethics, all of which can illuminate strengths and weaknesses in one another.

As an introductory guide to ethics for the general public, “Is Ethics based on Virtue?” serves its purpose well enough but is rather dry and can be hard to follow for those people who don’t have much time or Sitzenfleisch to think much about life beyond its immediate, day-to-day concerns. Young people in high school and at college undergraduate level may be unimpressed by the program’s sedate presentation.

 

 

 

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