“Virtue Ethics”. Unlike consequentialist and nonconsequentialist act and rule theories of ethics, virtue ethics focuses on the quality of being human. Virtue ethics seeks to unite the entire individual both emotion, mind and body into a habitually formed creature of excellence. The whole person is brought into subjection to the idea of what it means to be truly human.
For Aristotle, being human was defined by our ability to reason, therefore we should strive to reason with excellence. According to Aristotle, “ the end of human life is happiness, and the basic activity of human beings is to reason—a virtuous activity"; therefore, the aim of human beings, according to Aristotle, is to reason well for a whole or complete life.
The problem I see with Aristotle is his assumption that we will all reason to the same conclusions because everyone has different ideas of happiness. Reason itself does not lead one to truth although without it truth will be a hard find. Happiness is a vague term in our society, so Aristotle may be misunderstood when he speaks of happiness. By happiness Aristotle was not referring to material wealth, a great sex life, or power, but contentment through wise living; by acting in accordance with what is virtuous.
The question remains: what is virtue or virtuous? How do we define or know what is truly good or true? I would agree with Aristotle that virtue involves the entire person and flows from a persons character but we have no real way of defining or detailing what makes for virtuous character. If we use rules to define virtuous character, then we are back at rule based ethics or non consequentialism; if we say “we just know” then we are act consequentialism or intuition.
Once again we are at worldviews. The terrorist see courage in blowing themselves up in a crowded mall although they are killing innocent citizens because their spiritual leader has convinced them that their holy book affirms the act. Is this the same act as a soldier who is blown up throwing himself on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers. Which one was truly courageous? How do we define the virtue of courage? Before we can judge by our intuition, rules, or habitually begin to form our character towards virtue, we need to know what is truly virtuous.
Aristotle is correct that reason can be a guide but reason must help us to begin to answer important questions: Where do we derive our ethical reason and desire from and how do we account for and resolve the broad range of ethical opinions being advocated. For all of the ethical diversity there are still fundamental agreements about what is good and evil, but the difficulty comes in the decision making process during ethical crises or conflicts. Also, there are cultural customs and norms that people must adhere and incorporate into good and bad choices. Within cultures, the values, customs, and norms change and reevaluations of what is right and wrong.
The United States is a good example of how quickly values and morals can change in a short span of time. Example, 30 years ago society largely rejected homosexuality as immoral and yet today the general population no longer believes gay relationships to be unethical. Living together before marriage was considered at one time a scandal, and now many accepts such arrangements as normal. This does not mean that in the past our culture was mistaken and today we are wiser, but it does reveal how our values in relationships, marriage and child rearing have changed. Change is inevitable but the impact of fundamental ethical changes in society can take decades to reveal if the direction was wise or foolish.
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