View:

Part A)

https://youtu.be/iSLsUO6uK4M

This video focuses on the relationship between virtue and the good life (i.e. eudaimonia). (13:28 min.)

Part B) This video explains how it is that we become virtuous. (3:18 min.)

https://youtu.be/qs9QiczZvdU

Part C)

This video provides Aristotle's account of what it means to have virtue. (9:21 min.)

https://youtu.be/PrvtOWEXDIQ

Read:

Ethics and Virtue

SCU.EDU OFFICES & SERVICES SCHOOLS & CENTERS Q Prepared SCU: Get the latest campus updates on COVID-19.x Markkula Center or Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University ABOUT THE CENTER FOCUS AREAS ETHICS RESOURCES ETHICS SPOTLIGHTS EVENTS DONATE CONTACT US Ethics and Virtue Home a Center for Applied Ethics > Ethics Resources . Ethical Decision Making > Ethics and Virtue Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. f in @ 3 Meyer Ethics Resources For many of us, the fundamental question of ethics is, "What should I do?" or "How should I act?" Ethics is supposed to provide us with "moral principles" or universal rules that tell us what to do. Many people, for Using This Site example, read passionate adherents of the moral principle of utilitarianism: "Everyone is obligated to do A Framework for Ethical Decision Making whatever will achieve the greatest good for the greatest number." Others are just as devoted to the basic Ethical Decision Making principle of Immanuel Kant: "Everyone is obligated to act only in ways that respect the human dignity and moral rights of all persons." Ethics Articles Ethics Blogs Moral principles like these focus primarily on people's actions and doings. We "apply" them by asking what Ethics Cases these principles require of us in particular circur nsidering whether to lie or to commit suicide. We also apply them when we ask what they require of us as professionals, e.g., lawyers Ethics Curricula doctors, or business people, or what they require of our social policies and institutions. In the last decade, Ethics Links dozens of ethics centers and programs devoted to "bu s", "legal ethics", "medical ethics", and Ethics Podcasts "ethics in public policy" have sprung up. These centers are designed to examine the implications moral Ethics Spotlight principles have for our lives. Ethics Videos But are moral principles all that ethics consists of? Critics have rightly claimed that this emphasis on moral Ethics and ESG Resource Center principles smacks of a thoughtless and slavish worship of rules, as if the moral life was a matter of scrupulously checking our every action against a table of do's and don'ts. Fortunately, this obsession with principles and rules has been recently challenged by se who argue that the emphasis on principles ignores a fundamental component of ethics--virtue. These ethicists point our that by focusing on what people should do or how people should act, the "moral principles approach" neglects the more important issue--what people should be. In other words, the fundamental question of ethics is not "What should I do?" but "What kind of person should I be?" According to "virtue ethics", there are certain ideals, such as excellence or dedication to the common good, toward which we should strive and which allow the full development of our humanity. These ideals are discovered through thoughtful reflection on what we as human beings have the potential to become "Virtues" are attitudes, dispositions, or character traits that enable us to be and to act in ways that develop his potential. They enable us to pursue the ideals we have adopted. Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity, integrity, fairness, self-control, and prudence are all examples of virtues. How does a person develop virtues? Virtues ped through learning and through practice. As the ancient philosopher Aristotle suggested, a person can improve his or her character by practicing self- discipline, while a good character can be corrupted by repeated self-indulgence. Just as the ability to run a marathon develops through much training and practice, so too does our capacity to be fair, to be courageous, or to be compassionate. Virtues are habits. That is, once they are acquired, they become characteristic of a person. For example, a person who has developed the virtue of generosity is often referred to as a generous person because he or she tends to be generous in all circumstances. Moreover, a person who has developed virtues will be naturally disposed to act in ways that are consistent with moral principles. The virtuous person is the ethical person. At the heart of the virtue approach to ethics is the idea of "community". A person's character traits are not developed in isolation, but within and by the communities to which he or she belongs, including family, church, school, and other private and pu w and mature, their personalities are deeply affected by the values that their communities prize, by the personality traits that their communities encourage, and by the role models that their communities put forth for imitation through traditional stories, fiction, movies, television, and so on. The virtue approach urges us to pay attention to the contours of our communities and the habits of chara courage and instill. The moral life, then, is not simply a matter of following moral rules and of learning to apply them to specific situations. The moral life is also a matter of trying to determine the kind of people we should be and of attending to the development of character within our communities and ourselves. This article appeared originally in Issues in Ethics V1 N3 (Spring 1988) Jan 1, 1988 MARKKULA CENTER FOR APPLIED ETHICS Vari Hall, Santa Clara University ABOUT THE CENTER PROGRAMS RESOURCES 500 El Camino Real News Focus Areas Ethical Decision Making Santa Clara, CA 95053 Privacy Policy Events Articles 408-554-5319 Ethics Experts for Media Email Sign-up Cases Maps & Directions Donate Sitemap Curricula Contact Us Accessibility Title IX f y in a O SANTA CLARA UNIVER @ 2022. Accessibility Login |Part 1 As noted in the video, Aristotle says that having virtue just means doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, in the right amount, toward the right people. Aristotle also has us think of a virtue as a mean between two vices. This can help us to see the ways in which we might fail to have virtue. Take courage [a virtue}, for example. if we are either rash [a vice} or cowardly (a vice], then we are probably failing to meet at least one of the conditions noted above. For instance, if we are cowardly, we might fail to confront someone who is doing evil. So, we might fail the "doing the right thing" condition. if we are rash, we might be willing to confront evil, but we might not do it "at the right time, in the right way." So, we might fail two conditions. a] Come up with 1,rour own example of a person meeting *all\" of Aristotle's conditions highlighted in blue above for being courageous in your professional setting, i.e. the area in which you are or will be working with your BAS degree. Make sure that your example is one of courage and not something else. Explicitlv refer back to m of the conditions and describe how it is satised in order to explain why your case is one of being courageous. b) Describe a case of a person failing to meet one of these conditions {i.e. a case in which a person is either cowardly or rash -- the two vices of which courage is the golden mean}. Explicitlv state which condition of the ones highlighted in blue is not met and explain how it is not met