Virtue Ethics

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Virtue Ethics- To achieve your eudaimonia you should be a virtuous person (Aristotle & McIntyre)

Advantages

  • Relative to the person- the Cardinal Virtues (Courage, Temperance, Wisdom and Justice) can be demonstrated in different ways and on different levels
  • You are not only judged by your actions, but by your intentions and yourself as a person
  • The Doctrine of the Mean (Deficiency --> Virtue --> Excess) implies that everything is good/ moral in moderation- prevents both selfishness and selflessness

Disadvantages

  • Inconsistent- How can we measure how virtuous someone is if the virtues are shown in different ways and in different level by each of us?
  • Would lead to chaos- There is no objective or universal guidelines; everyone could claim to be ethical
  • Unclear/ impractical- A virtuous person can act unethically, and vice versa
  • How do we know that the Cardinal Virtues are the correct ones, how to measure them or how they affect a person. If somone is wise but not just are they a virtuous person?

Evaluation

In my opinion, virtue ethics is a good theory as it does not subject people to living according to ethical guidelines we aren't actually provided with, but instead simply tells one to be a virtuous person. However, this is only in theory. In practice, Virtue Ethics would not work as there is not guidelines or clarity of the argument to allow us to live according to it. 

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