Basics Of Virtue Ethics And An Objection

PART A: Basics of Virtue Ethics, and an Objection

Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics is a theory that takes focus away from action and spotlights character. If one focuses on living virtuously, it is logical to believe that the actions they take would encompass goodness. One must condition both their feelings and actions to be virtuous because virtue is learned not inherent. Humans are naturally driven by their needs and desires. It takes acting virtuously repeatedly to make it a consistent habit. This will in turn lead to well-flourishing for the individual as well as society. Similarly, each virtue is opposed to two vices one of excess and one of deficiency. The value of living a virtuous live is through thriving is moderation rather than excess.

Objector’s would argue that virtue ethics would not be able to provide an answer to this moral dilemma. This is because the theory focuses on character rather than what the right thing to do would be. Considering the complex magnitude of this situation, how could virtue come into play in this scenario? Which virtue should be applied and why? The objector would state that there are no guidelines on how to apply this theory to the situation. Similarly, there is no way to determine what virtues are good or which should be applied in this case through the scope of virtue

However, if you look at his theory through a large scope it does seem to be all encompassing. For example, when I started to analyze the case of sex offenders attempt for freedom I believed applying Aristotle’s theory to be impossible. Instead I had chosen to offer Kant’s Categorical Imperative. I chose this theory as my topic because I found it to be the most challenging. I believe that the struggle with virtue ethics is the understanding of the virtues themselves and which ones to apply to the situation. Like all of philosophy, this takes much thought. One can run into many errors in their attempt to apply this theory to a particular moral dilemma. Aristotle himself admitted that, “it is easy to miss the target, and difficult to hit it” (RTD 69). Similarly, this theory may be better equipped to address difficult situations if it was combined with another theory such as Utilitarianism. That way the theory may be more well rounded and easier to