VIRTUE ETHICS

CHAPTER V
 INTRODUCTION

 Bro. Armin Luistro:

Children’s Television act of 1997
- to regulate television shows and
promote child-friendly programs.

 Children may tend to imitate what they

observe.
VIRTUE
ETHICS
Virtue ethics: one theory that can possibly provide
a comprehensive understanding of how an
individual can develop moral character.

It is the ethical framework that is concerned with

understanding the good as a matter of developing
the virtues character.

It focuses on the formation of one’s character

brought about by determining and doing virtues
acts.
VIRTUE ETHICS
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics:
- is the first comprehensive and
programmatic study of virtue ethics.
 Aristotle’s discourse of ethics departs from the
Platonic understanding of reality and conception
of the good.
 Both Plato and Aristotle affirm rationality as the
highest faculty of a person and having such
characteristic enables a person to realize the very
purpose of her existence.
 VIRTUE ETHICS
PLATO ARISTOTLE

 Real is outside the realm of any human sensory  Real is found within our everyday encounter with
experience but can somehow be grasped by one’s objects in the world.
intellect.  What makes nature intelligible is its character of having
both form and matter.
 Truth and good is in the forms and ideas of  Truth and good cannot exist apart from the object and
transcendent. are not independent of our experience.
 VIRTUE ETHICS
 The particular act of goodness that one does in the world is more important than
any conception of the good that is outside and beyond the realm of experience.
 Aristotle’s ethical theory engaging the good in our day-to-day living.
 HAPPINESS AND ULTIMATE PURPOSE
ARISTOTLE:
 Every act that a person does is directed toward a
particular purpose, aim, or what the Greeks called telos.
 There is a purpose where one does something, and for
Aristotle a person’s action manifests a good that she
aspires for.
 Aristotle is aware that one does an act not only to achieve
a particular purpose but also believes such purpose can be
utilized for a higher goal or activity, which then can be
used to achieve an even higher purpose and so on.
 In other words, the different goods that one pursues form
a hierarchy of teloi.
 HAPPINESS AND ULTIMATE PURPOSE
 With the condition that there is a hierarchy of telos. Aristotle then asks about the highest
purpose, which is the ultimate good of human being. Aristotle discusses the general criteria
in order for one to recognize the highest good of a man.
 Highest good criteria:
1. Final
2. Self-sufficient
 According to Aristotle, older individuals would agree that the highest purpose and the
ultimate good of a man is happiness, or for the Greeks, eudaimonia.
 Happiness for Aristotle is the only self-sufficient aim that one can aspire for. No amount of
wealth or power can be more fulfilling than having achieved the condition of happiness. One
can imagine a life of being wealthy, powerful and experiencing pleasurable feelings and yet,
such life is still not satisfying without happiness.
HAPPINESS AND ULTIMATE PURPOSE

 How does a person arrive at her highest good?

According to Aristotle, if an individual’s action can

achieve the highest good, then one must:

1. Investigate how he/she functions which

enables him/her to reach her ultimate purpose.

2. Discussing the function of human beings to

Distinguish one’s activity from other beings.
 HAPPINESS AND ULTIMATE PURPOSE

 The local saying “Madaling maging tao, mahirap

magpakatao” can be understood by the light of
Aristotle’s thoughts on the function of a good
person. Any human being can perform the
activity of reason, thus, being human is
achievable. However, being a good human being
strives hard in doing things in an excellent way.
Therefore, the task of being human becomes
more difficult because doing such an activity well
takes more effort on the part of the person.
 VIRTUE AS EXCELLENCE
 Virtue or Arete
- excellent way of doing things.
- it is something that one strives
for in time.
 Aristotle says that excellence is an
activity of the human soul and
therefore, one needs to understand
the very structure of a person’s soul
which must be directed by her
rational activity in an excellent way.
 VIRTUE AS EXCELLENCE

Irrational element of human soul:

1. Vegetative: giving nutrition, providing the
activity of physical and growth of a person.
2. Appetitive: desiring faculty of a man.

Rational element of human soul:

1. Moral: act of doing
2. Intellectual: act of knowing
 VIRTUE AS EXCELLENCE
 One rational aspect a person can attain is in the
intellectual faculty excellence of the soul. As stated by
Aristotle, this excellence is attained trough teaching.
Through time, one learns from the vast experiences in
life where she gains knowledge on these things. One
learns and gains wisdom by being taught or by
learning.

Intellectual Excellence can be achieved by two ways:

1. Philosophic: fundamental principles and truths
that govern universe.
2. Practical: right conduct in carrying out a
particular act.
 VIRTUE AS EXCELLENCE
 In carrying out a morally virtuous life, one needs the intellectual guide of practical wisdom
in steering the self towards the right choices and actions. Having practical wisdom or the
excellence in knowing what to act upon does not make someone already morally virtuous.
Knowing the good is different from determining and acting on what is good. But a morally
good person has to achieve the intellectual virtue of practical wisdom to perform the task of
being moral.

 For Socrates, moral goodness is already within the realm of intellectual excellence. Knowing
the good implies the ability to perform morally virtues acts. For Aristotle, however having
intellectual excellence does not necessarily mean that one already has the capacity of doing
the good. Knowing the good that needs to be done is different from knowing the good that
one needs to accomplish.
 VIRTUE AS EXCELLENCE
 Rational faculty of a person tells us that she is capable of achieving
two kinds of virtue: moral and intellectual. In discussing moral
virtue, Aristotle says that it is attained by the means of habit. A
morally virtues man for Aristotle is someone who is habitually
determines the good and does the right actions. Moral virtue is
acquired through habit.
 Being morally good is a process of getting used to doing the proper
act. The saying “practice makes perfect” can be applied to this
aspect of person.
 A moral person habitually chooses the good and consistently does
good deeds. It is in this constant act of choosing and doing the good
that a person is able to form her character.
 The Filipino term pag-uugali precisely reflects the meaning of moral
character. One can have mabuting pag-uugali (good character) or
masamang pag-uugali (bad character).
 MORAL VIRTUE AND MESOTES
 Developing a practical wisdom involves learning from experiences. Knowledge is not inherent to a
person. Knowing the right thing to do when one is confronted by a choice is not easy. One needs to
develop this knowledge by exercising the faculty of practical reason in her daily life.

 In attaining practical wisdom, we may intentionally make mistakes on how reason is applied to a
particular moral choice or action. But through this mistakes , we will be able to sustain practical
wisdom to help steer another’s ability to know morally right choices and actions. In other words,
we will be able to mature and grow in the capacity of knowing what to do and living a morally
upright life.

 This is why when it comes to life choices, one can seek the advice of elders in the community,
those who gained rich life experiences and practical wisdom, because they would be able to assist
someone’s deliberation.
 MORAL VIRTUE
AND MESOTES
 When practical wisdom guides the conduct of making
morally right choices and actions, what does it identify
as the proper and right thing to do?
- The answer is MESOTES. Mesotes determine
whether the act applied is not excessive or deficient.

 Determining the middle becomes the proper tool by

which one can arrive at the proper way of doing things.
 Based on Aristotle, a morally virtuous person is
concerned with achieving her appropriate action in a
manner that is neither excessive nor deficient.
 MORAL VIRTUE AND MESOTES
 Virtue is middle or intermediary point between extremes. One has to function in a state that her
personality manifests the right amount, of feelings, passion and ability for a particular act. Generally,
feelings and passions are neutral which means that, in themselves, they are neither morally right nor
wrong.

 The rightness or wrongness of feelings, passions, and abilities lies in the degree of their application
in a given situation. It is right to get angry at an offensive remark, but it is not right to get angry at
everyone just because you were offended by someone.

 A morally virtues person targets mesotes . Mesotes determines whether the act applied is not
excessive or deficient. Targeting the middle entails being immersed in a moral circumstance,
understanding the experience, and eventually developing the knowledge of identifying the proper
way or the mean to address a particular situation.
MORAL VIRTUE AND
MESOTES
 Moral virtue, according to Aristotle, is a state of
character which habitually acts according to the middle
measure that practical wisdom identifies as the moral
choice that should be acted upon, given the concrete
situation that presents to the person. The goal of virtue
ethics is to promote the maturity of the character of the
person. Building a good character is a task and
responsibility of a person.
 MORAL VIRTUE AND MESOTES

 The virtuous person learns from her experiences and therefore develops the capacity to
know the proper way of carrying out her feelings, passions, and actions.

 The rational faculties of this person, especially practical wisdom, aid in making a virtuous
person develop a habit of doing good. A moral person in this sense is also someone who is
wise.

 Habit is not simply borne out and repetitive and non-thought-of activities in a person. Habits
for Aristotle are products of the constant application of reason in the person’s action.
 MORAL VIRTUE AND MESOTES

 In the study mentioned wherein children are beginning to consider violence “as a way to
solve problems”, it seems apparent that they would like to think that there is somehow a
“good” in an unjust act since it can become a problem-solver.

 If violence becomes a tool by which difficult situations are addressed, then it can be
constructed by children of bearing some positive value. As an act, violence, in itself, is bad.
A person cannot employ violence as if it were a virtue or a middle measure in between vices
of being “deficient” in violence or being “excessive” of the same act.