Virtue ethics can be identified as a term that sums up all the theories that focus on the importance of character and virtue in the field of moral philosophy. It can also be defined as one of the three significant approaches when normative ethics is considered. After its resurrection in the twentieth century, the area of virtue ethics was nurtured in these three directions. They can be recognized as Edaimonism, agent-based theories and also the ethics of care. Moreover, many theories of virtue ethics have looked upon Aristotle as their role model. For example, a virtuous individual is considered to be someone who is kind and compassionate without expecting any favours in return. Hence, the virtue ethics theories does not simply aim to define those universal principles that may be applicable in any moral situations.
Virtue ethics was primarily started by Socrates and was consequently built upon by Plato, Aristotle and the rest of the Stoics. Thus, it can be concluded that the concept of virtue theory has been established ever since the onset of ancient Greek philosophy. This set of ethical philosophies lays importance on a person’s being rather than their actions. For instance, great importance is placed on an individual’s honesty and generosity. It is believed that if these virtues were continuously practiced, it would lead to the development of a person’s moral character. Some of the moral virtues that was identified and specified were courage, liberality, magnificence and friendliness. Aristotle also brought forth some additional favourable virtues such as gnome, which indicates good sense and synesis which refers to understanding. Moreover, phronesis indicates practical wisdom and techne refers to art and craftsmanship.
There are various reasons why virtue ethics is extremely crucial. Firstly, virtue ethics an individual’s personal and interpersonal relationships to thrive and flourish. Maintaining these relationships prove to be crucial in order to lead a satisfactory life. Moreover, a major advantage of virtue ethics is that it is not a prey of ‘moral schizophrenia’ because it does not hamper an individual’s motivations and their reasons. Moreover, the practice of good habits such as honesty and generosity also aids an individual to develop their moral character in the proper direction. Virtue ethics also plays a major role in fusing an individual’s reasons and their motives. Hence, practicing virtues such as empathy, compassion and kindness leads to the growth of joy and satisfaction in one’s life.
Virtue ethics aids to develop one’s character in a positive direction. Furthermore, virtue ethics also emphasizes the focus on the inner states and harmony. Thus, virtue ethics is extremely useful when it comes to developing character. Moreover, consistency is also a key factor when it comes to virtue ethics. Even though the proper nurturing of one’s moral character may take a lifetime, the adoption of virtue ethics may assist one to develop the moral character in a more efficient manner. Moreover, virtue ethics was born out of the dissatisfaction which occurred due to the rigidity of moral rules and consequent principles. Thus, virtue ethics aims to encourage an individual to practically pursue moral excellence as their goal.
There are certain objections when it comes to virtue ethics. Firstly, critics opine that virtue ethics focuses on self-centeredness. Since morality is supposed to refer to other individuals, virtue ethics comes under the category for self-centeredness because an individual only focuses on their own character without speculating about the effects on others. This criticism falters to acknowledge the role that virtues play in the theory. Moreover, there have been a number of objections to virtue ethics, some of which are more directly related to one type of virtue ethics than others. Some of them are application, adequacy, relativism, conflict, self-effacement, justification, egoism, and situationist problems.
There are numerous other branches of ethics which relate to the concept of virtue ethics. The first of them is descriptive ethics. Descriptive ethics centres around what individuals actually think to be correct or incorrect, thus holding up human behaviour that is acceptable or unacceptable or even punishable under a custom or law. Furthermore, normative ethics is concerned with standards or set of factors on how to behave. It is therefore a study of ethical action. It is also referred to as prescriptive ethics because it is based on values that determine whether an action is correct or incorrect. Lastly, deontological ethics deals with the correctness or incorrectness of an action, rather than emphasizing the consequences.
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