Central
to virtue ethics is the idea that morality is not performing certain right
actions but possessing a certain character. Instead of asking, "What
actions are right?" virtue ethics asks, "What kind of persons should
we be?" In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argued that
ethics enables us to live the good life and that the good life is
possible only for virtuous persons. Aristotle described particular
virtues in illuminating detail. After Aristotle, philosophical theory
tended to focus more on right action and duties, but some contemporary
philosophers argue for a return to virtue ethics.
What
are virtues and how do they determine justice?
Virtues
are specifically those traits that everyone needs for the good life,
regardless of their specific situation. For example, courage is a virtue
because it enables anyone to get what he or she wants. The virtues are
integrally related to what Aristotle called practical wisdom, which is what a
person needs in order to live well. Virtue is variously described as an excellence
that is admired in a person, as a disposition to act in a certain way, and as a
specific state of character. Lists of the virtues generally
include: benevolence, compassion, courage, courtesy, dependability,
friendliness, honesty, loyalty, moderation, self-control, and tolerance.
In developing a list of virtues, we must consider not only the contribution of
a virtue to some end but also the end itself. Aristotle considered
happiness to be the end of life, and so the virtues must all contribute in some
way to happiness. Thus, the character traits that enable a despot or a
criminal or a lecher to be successful are not virtues because they do not
conduce to happiness. Moreover, the virtues are not merely means to
happiness but are themselves constitutive of it. For example, a parent
cannot experience the joy of parenting without actually possessing the traits
that make one a good parent.
Strengths
and weaknesses of virtue ethics
A strength of virtue ethics is that it fits with our everyday moral experience.
The response of most people to a complex ethical dilemma is not to think about
how universal principles can be applied but to decide what they feel
comfortable with or what a person they admire would do. Codes of
professional ethics generally stress that a professional should be a person of
integrity. Unlike the impartiality stressed by utilitarianism and
Kantianism, virtue ethics makes better sense of the role that personal
relations play in morality. Since business activity is based so
heavily on roles and relationships in which such concepts as loyalty and trust
figure prominently, virtue ethics is highly relevant to the workplace. A
weakness of virtue ethics is its incompleteness. Virtue ethics can
take us only so far in dealing with genuine ethical dilemmas. Some
dilemmas involve the limits of rules (such as when concealing information
becomes a lie) or conflicts between rules (when telling the truth would harm an
innocent person, for example). Moreover, there are some difficult ethical
dilemmas to which virtues do not readily apply. Some virtue ethicists
respond that the importance of dilemmas in ethics has been overstated and that
ethics is concerned primarily with the problems of everyday life. Another
weakness is that virtue ethics does not address the problem of conflict.
According to Aristotle, happiness is possible for anyone who becomes a certain
kind of person, but insofar as our goals in life include possessing limited
goods, not everyone can be successful. Virtue ethicists respond that
morality is more a matter of living cooperatively than of moderating conflict.
See also: Aristotle's virtue ethics