Virtue Theory
Timmons notes on virtues
Mark Timmons believed that the right thing to do is what the virtuous person would do. The moral agent according to Timmons is an individual whose character traits are virtues devoid of any vices. According to him, virtues are character traits that are positively valued to in an individual. Examples of such virtues are honesty, generosity, and kindness. Timmons went ahead to explain what vices are. He asserts that vices are character traits that are negatively valued to people (Timmons, 2002).
Vices according to him include dishonesty, cruelty, and selfishness. The virtues person is ideal to emulate. Virtue ethics uses aretaic categorization in determining whether a trait is a vice or virtue before giving a deontic classification or wrong or right. Timmons contends that the fact that a character is either as a vice or virtue allows the determination of right or wrong action. He gives an example of care ethics in understanding morality by maintaining and promoting relationships with one another (Timmons, 2002, pg. 282-285). Generally, Timmons agreed with earlier philosophers like Aristotle and Plato. Aristotle explained that virtue is an acquired disposition that promotes excellence in actions and decisions. Timmons quotes the words of his predecessor affirming that the highest good which Aristotle referred to as eudaimonia of human beings is a life of rationality by virtues (pg.272-274).
Virtue
According to Plato, virtues are good habits of character. They are excellent traits of moral character. A virtue is a disposition of doing well to others (Hutchinson, 2015). Plato identified four virtues in particular which he called cardinal virtues. These are wisdom, courage, temperament, and courage. Other virtues include honesty, compassion, tolerance, love, fidelity, fairness, generosity, and benevolence. Such virtues are important because they help a person to behave ethically. Once individuals have acquired such virtues, they will habitually act in an ethical manner (Hutchinson, 2015).
Eudaimonia
Eudaimonia is a Greek word meaning “happiness” or “flourishing.” Aristotle points out that where a thing has a function the good of the matter is when it performs its purpose well. He argues that eudaimonia involves pleasure. I virtue ethics theory, eudaimonia, according to Aristotle every action aims at some good, such as a doctor vaccinating a baby to improve its health. He says that eudaimonia is happiness, contentment, and fulfillment. This he observes that eudemonistic virtue ethics reverses the relationship between virtue and rightness (McDowell, 2018).
Aristotle’s Doctrine of the mean
Aristotle’s Doctrine of the mean is used to illuminate the nature of eudaimonia which is defined as happiness or flourishing. It is simply an account developed by Aristotle employed to help us categorize actions as good, bad or indifferent. This would help us to determine what the right thing to do is. According to this account, the right act is a mean (average) between the extremes of too good and too bad (McDowell, 2018). The specific means is determined as the practically wise person would decide it, argues Aristotle. According to him, the ability to see the right thing under a particular circumstance can only be done using theoretical reason which he also states that it can be done in excess. Aristotle contended that the virtues were the mean between two vices one of deficiency and the other of excess on the scale of the emotion of a characteristic. For example, we may have wastefulness (excess) on one end and stinginess (deficiency) on the other end, and the mean will be generosity. Another example is that courage is the mean of fear and confidence. Courage is, therefore, the virtue because it is a mean of the two.
Principles of Right action
Obligatory: right actions are either obligatory or optional. According to (Simpson, 2017), obligatory rights are those whose omission is optimal to blame.
Forbidden: acts of self-sacrifice performed for the sake of the good of others but which result in a greater balance of harm over good than alternative actions would produce are generally regarded as heroic but are forbidden as wrong by the utilitarian (Simpson, 2017).
Explain why virtue theory is an aretological theory
The virtue theory is an aretological theory because it involves a catalog of virtues belonging to a person. The aretological theory is concerned with arête which means excellence of any kind or moral virtue in which the virtue theory is grounded (Wedgwood, 2018). The virtue theory is concerned with virtues such as justice, courage, benevolence, honesty, charity, modesty, patience, and loyalty. The virtue theory contends that what makes something good or bad is that it embodies traits that are culturally acknowledged as good or bad. It focuses on human character rather than teleontology or deontology (Wedgwood, 2018). Thus, virtue theory is aretological because it does not focus on the consequences of actions (teleontology) or the rightness or wrongness of an action (deontology) but instead emphasizes on the excellent character in human behavior (virtues). It is concerned with the virtues which when practiced by humans, they will be acting morally. Aretology is different from deontology and teleontology in that where a deontologist would argue that giving to charity is our duty to help others and a utilitarian argue that it maximizes the well-being in society, a virtue theorist would point out that helping others displays desirable virtues such as being benevolent and charitable. Thus, since the aretological theory is concerned with virtues, virtue theory is an aretological theory.
References
Hutchinson, D. S. (2015). The virtues of Aristotle. Routledge.
McDowell, J. (2018). Eudaimonism and realism in Aristotle’s ethics. In Aristotle and moral realism (pp. 201-231). Routledge.
Simpson, P. L. (2017). The Eudemian Ethics of Aristotle. Routledge.
Wedgwood, R. (2018). The internalist virtue theory of knowledge. Synthese, 1-22.