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Virtue Ethics
"The nature of a human being is not
what he is born as, but what he is
born for."
Greek Virtue Ethics
 Socrates (470?-399 B.C.E.)
 Plato (427-347 B.C.E.)
 Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.)
 Knowledge
 Virtue
 Happiness
Nicomachean Ethics
The Nature of Ethics according to Aristotle
 Ethics refers primarily to character
 Emphasis is on character and human excellence, the
virtues
 The criterion for moral rightness is good character
Character
 The virtuous person acts out of a set disposition to do
the right act in the right way, at the right time, and for
the right reason
 If you don’t know what the right thing to do is, find the
good person and watch what he does
Teleological thinking
 All nature is teleological (purposive)
 Pre-designed telos
Plants
Animals
Humans
nutrition
sensation
nutrition, sensation, and
reason
 The ability to deliberate, to use reason in a practical
and theoretical manner is the essence (function) of a
human being
Human Nature
 Humans by nature are political animals
 Good state provides good and happy people
 Good people along with good laws are necessary
for a well-governed state
Ethics is considered as a branch of politics: the
state should actively encourage citizens to
inculcate the virtues, which in turn are the best
guarantee of a flourishing political order
The Functionalist Account of Human Nature
 To know what something is, is to know what it is used
for, what it is meant to become: what its function is.

E.g. what is the function of a knife?
 Human beings have a distinct function
 Some humans fulfill this function better than others
 (NE, Book 1, 7)
 “Reason is the true self of every person, since it
is the supreme and better part, It will be strange,
then, if he should choose not his own life, but
some other’s….What is naturally proper to every
creature is the highest and pleasantest for him.
And so, to man, this will be the life of Reason,
since reason is, in the highest sense, a man’s self.”
(NE, 10.7)
What is the Good life?
 The three classes of goods: (NE 1,8)
What kind of life is most worth living?
“There is general agreement; for both the common
person and people of superior refinement say that
it is happiness, and identify living well and doing
well with being happy; but with regard to what
happiness is they differ, and many do not give the
same account as the wise. For the former think it
is some plain and obvious thing, like pleasure,
wealth or honor.” (NE, I.4)
Happiness
How does Aristotle define
“happiness”? What are the chief
characteristics of happiness? How
does he arrive at this definition?
(Book 1, 8)
Happiness (eudaimonia)
 It is not merely a subjective state of pleasure or
contentment but the kind of life we would all want
to live if we understood our essential nature.
 Our function (essence) is to live according to
reason and thereby become a certain sort of highly
rational being.
 When we fulfill the ideal of living the virtuous life,
we are truly happy.
 Happy life is directed toward worthwhile goals.
The Good Life
 “Activity of the soul in accordance with virtue,
and if there are more than one virtue, in
accordance with the best and most complete.”
 The best and most complete virtue is to be found in
intellectual virtues
Virtue
“We can experience fear, confidence, desire,
anger, pity, and generally any kind of pleasure
and pain too much or too little, and in either
case not properly. But to experience all this at
the right time, toward the right object,
toward the right people, for the right reason,
and in the right manner-that is the mean and
the best course, the course that is the mark
of virtue. (NE)
Types of virtues
 Intellectual Virtues
 Moral Virtues
- The virtues of the
- Derive from attitudes in
rational part of the soul
- Practical reason:
prudence
- Theoretical reason:
wisdom
us (habituation)
E.g. by carrying out
acts of courage we easily
bring in completion the
acts of courage
Intellectual virtues
 Prudence (phronesis):
 Consists in knowing correctly how to direct the life of
man
 Assist us in deliberating correctly about the true aims of
man: it points out the suitable means to the
achievement of true goals
 Wisdom:
 The most elevated dianoetic virtue
 It regards those things that are higher than man: e.g.
theoretical sciences, metaphysics.
Correlation between intellectual
and ethical virtues
“For virtue makes us aim at the right mark, and practical
wisdom makes us take the right means.”
 Intellectual virtues points out the suitable means but
they do not point out the ends themselves
 The true ends and aims are grasped by the ethical virtues
that directs the will in the correct way
“It is not possible to be virtuous without prudence or to
be wise without ethical virtues.”
Prudence
 is the virtue of practical intelligence of knowing how
to apply general principles in particular situations.
 is the ability to act so that principle will take a concrete
form.
 Is not only a virtue but it is the keystone to all virtues.
 Prudence is the virtue which is manifested in acting so
that one’s adherence to other virtues is exemplified in
one’s actions.
“Whereas young people become accomplished in
geometry and mathematics, and wise within these
limits, prudent young people do not seem to be found.
The reason is that prudence is concerned with
particulars as well as universals, and particulars
become known from experience, but a young person
lacks experience, since some length of time is needed
to produce it (Nichomachean Ethics).”
Ethical virtues
“ virtue of character is a mean, …, it is a mean between two
vices, one of excess and one of deficiency; and that it is
such because it is the sort of thing able to hit the mean in
feelings and actions. This is why it is hard to be good,
because in each case it is hard to find the middle point; for
instance, not everyone can find the center of a circle, but
only the person with knowledge. So too anyone can get
angry, or give and spend money – these are easy; but doing
them in relation to the right person, in the right amount, at
the right time, with the right aim in view, and in the right
way – that is not something anyone can do, nor it is easy.
This is why excellence in these things is rare, praiseworthy
and noble.” (NE)
 “Virtue… is a state involving rational choice,
consisting in a mean relative to us and
determined by reason – the reason, that is,
by reference to which practically wise person
would determine it. It is a mean between
two vices, one of excess, the other of
deficiency.” (NE)
The Golden Mean
 The morally good persons live a life of moderation, the
“mean” between two extreme type of actions
 The life of moderation is one that:
- Avoids the excesses and the deficiencies of behavior
- Is governed by reason
- Is not directed by uncontrollable desires and passion
Pleasure
Pleasure accompanies every activity and brings it to
perfection, it completes and activity
Which pleasures are good?
 Those which have good sources (even bodily pleasures
are good up to some point - temperance)
 The only real pleasures are those of the virtuous
person.
 Pleasure crowns the virtuous life and is the necessary
consequence of which virtue is the antecedent
Happiness
 How is virtue related to the attainment of happiness?
 Happiness consists in the activity of the mind in
conformity with virtue
 The true goods of man are the spiritual goods that
consist in virtue of his soul, and this is happiness
 The care of the soul remains the only way that leads to
happiness
 Being sufficiently endowed with the possession of
exterior goods is indispensable, but they don’t guarantee
happiness
Happiness: life of contemplation
 Having a good moral character, the intellectual habits
of the mind places us in a position to acquire scientific
and philosophical wisdom
 The central intellectual virtue is to discover the truth
 The life of the philosopher is the greatest chance to
achieve happiness: “this activity is the best …, and, … it
is the most continuous;” “the philosopher, even by
himself, can contemplate truth, …, he is the most selfsufficient, …. And this activity alone would seem to be
loved for its own sake.”
The Revival of Virtue Ethics
 The Ethics of Care
 Relationship
 Narrative
 The person as a whole