The Moral Philosophy Of Virtue Ethics

The Moral Philosophy Of Virtue EthicsVirtue Ethics is a honorable philosophy commonly attributed to Plato and Aristotle. The signifying of the word virtue for both was that of excellence. Although there argon differences in their single(a) schools of thought, their mindset on morality is more or less the same.Both these philosophers came upon their understanding of ethics and morality season attempting to answer some fundamental question. For Plato, the question was, what is the good lifespan? And for Aristotle this was, what do men fundamentally intrust?In their individual attempts to answer these questions we find their theories of ethics.Plato described four cardinal virtues in his works. They were Wisdom, Courage, Temperance and Justice, referring whiz by one to the following faculties of the human soul Reason, Spirits, Appetites and justice being the correct balance of the first three, which according to him was the obsequiousness of spirits and appetites to the facult y of reason. These virtues when properly exercised would lead to the development of an organized, well-balanced and hence virtuous individual. This well-balanced individual would be a happy individual.So, Plato hypothesizes that it is a happy person who is leading a good life (hence, a good life is a happy life). He is happy because he is virtuously virtuous, morally virtuous because he is guided by reason and reason is knowledge.We now understand the first vox of Platos hypothesis that to be happy one must be morally virtuous. This leads to the second depart of his theory that reason or that ultimate knowledge which is needed for morality fall downs from the Idea of Good. It is this Idea of Good which exists in the realm of Ideas, of immutable, unchanging Form which is the source and the final goal of all morality. And this Idea of Good is kindly only to the philosophers.Aristotle differs from the Platonic view over the concept of Forms and that knowledge of morality is a pri ori. According to him, moral principles are to be discovered through the study of mans life and his experiences and not from some obscure, formless demesne of ideals.In his search for the answer to what men fundamentally desire, Aristotle more or less comes to the same last as Plato, which is the attainment of Eudaimonia, a term used by Aristotle and translated commonly as Happiness. As with Plato, Aristotle similarly believes that leading a virtuous life will lead to happiness. A virtuous life is one which is governed by reason.Reason in man has ii functions. First is the use of reason (or the rational part of the soul) to control the irrational (appetitive, for e.g. emotions and vegetative, for e.g. breathing) part of the soul. The second is to use reason for the sake of deep analysis to come up with knowledge which in turn yields laws and principles to govern everyday life.He further states that virtue in man corresponds to these two functions of reason respectively moral vir tues and intellectual virtues. These moral and intellectual virtues are the mean between two vices. That is these virtues exist as the middle ground between two extremes.Moral virtues are those which based on rationality are ingrained in a man as his reputation and are pr carryiced by him out of habit. Examples of the moral virtues are courage and prudence etc.On the other hand, the intellectual virtues are those of exercising the rational part of the soul purely for the sake of reasoning, an type of which is wisdom.The former (moral virtues) are within reach of the ordinary man while the intellectual virtues fall in the domain of a few divinely blessed only.Finally, according to Aristotle it is the state of character of a person which makes him morally virtuous. This state of character is one of the three components of a mans personality. The other two being the passions (e.g. enkindle or fear) and the faculties (e.g. ability to feel anger).It is the state of character which pro pels a man to choose between two extremes. Hence moral virtue is the state of character of a man which leads him to choose the golden mean. permit us take an example, proper pride is the mean between empty vanity and undue humility.To quantity up Aristotles philosophy of ethics is that it is the character of man within which lies the power to choose. Hence it is not the act but the choice made between different forms of that act that morality is evident.NOTESWilliam Lille, An Introduction to Ethics, (London Methuen Co Ltd, 1971), 272.Ethel M. Albert, Theodore C. Denise and Sheldon P. Peterfreund, large Traditions in Ethics, (New York D. Van Nostrand Company, 1980), 11.Ibid., 38.Lille, An Introduction, 274, 277.Ethel M. Albert and others, Great, 11.Ibid., 29.Ibid., 38.Ibid., 46.Ibid., 48.Ibid., 39.Ibid., 50.