Ethics

Ethics Study Guide own activity. Plato saw the soul as a ghostly occupant of the body. In Aristotle’s view, the soul is part of a living body and, therefore, cannot be immortal. Although the soul is not a tangible object, it is not separable from the body in Aristotle’s view. By his account, the soul has three components: our passion, our faculties, and our states of character. Based on these components, his notion of the soul parallels our current notion of the mind. Aristotle defines supreme good as an activity of the rational soul in accordance with virtue. Virtu Virtue can be translated as excellence and described as harmony of the soul’s parts. Aristotle thought of virtues as states of character. According to Aristotle, there are two basic types of virtues: moral and intellectual. Moral virtues describe feeling, choosing, and acting well. There are eleven moral virtues: courage, temperance, liberality, magnificence, magnanimity, proper ambition, truthfulness, wittiness, friendliness, modesty, andrighteous indignation. Moral virtues are acquired by habit and must be cultivated. They are acquired with effort and developed through practice. Aristotle also describes non-moral virtues as being anything less than the human ideal. These are normative values about which traits are worthy of esteem. Intellectual virtues are described as a kind of wisdom acquired by teaching. Aristotle identified nine intellectual virtues and divided them into three types: theoretical, practical, and productive . The most important intellectual virtues were types of wisdom: sophia (theoretical wisdom) and phronesis (practical wisdom). Aristotle said one should strive to become a virtuous person. A virtuous person is a morally good person, and therefore virtues are good traits. The premise of virtue ethics lies in the belief that in order to live a moral life one must begin by developing good character. A follower of virtue ethics would argue that morality is not about “What should I do?” but rather, “What should I be?” The Mean Aristotle argued that each of the moral virtues was a mean between two corresponding vices. Virtue is a balance point between a deficiency and an excess of a trait. It consists of finding an appropriate middle ground between two extremes; therefore, each virtue has not one opposite, but two. The point of greatest virtue lies not in the exact middle, but at a golden mean , which is sometimes closer to one extreme than the other. Morals Virtue ethics furthers our understanding of morality because of the emphasis they place on the role played by motives in responding to a moral question. To have virtues guiding our actions is to have some particular motivation initiating the act. This means that certain virtues are a necessity for correct moral decisions. In other words, correct moral decisions require correct motives. While other moral theories share a difficulty in dealing with complicated moral calculations over what action should be taken or which moral duty should be acted upon, virtue theories remove the difficulty. The ©2018 Achieve Page 36 of 116