What is Virtue Ethics?

virtue ethics is the third moral theory given to you by discharge ins in his introduction to business ethics historically it is the preferred moral theory by the majority of Christians certainly it is the preferred moral theory historically speaking of the Roman Catholic Church and the reason for that is unlike utilitarianism and unlike deontology virtue ethics from the word go is very much open to God too revealing moral principles from God to us not that deontology can't do that but the Christian who is a kin ssin has to add revelation to a theory that is not immediately predisposed to it so virtue ethics is most open to God it is also perhaps the best in terms of dealing with human nature the best in terms of dealing with human character and human society and here's why what is a virtue well a virtue or virtues these moral principles are discovered by Reason acquired by practice in a community of character we first learn about morality about what is good and what is bad what is good and what is evil within a community of character our family our friends assuming that our friends are of good character assuming that our family is not dysfunctional our society again assuming that they're not dysfunctional and certainly groups that make up society your hobby club your Reading Club the Boy Scouts again assuming that they are communities of character certainly a community of character is the church because even though the church may have stumbled either in a universal level or in a local level generally speaking the majority of the church the majority of the time in its history has remained true to the mission that God gave it and integral to that mission is being a community of character so the church historically has been a most reliable means of teaching us those moral principles that we live by so within a community of character we learn these moral principles but being taught being handed on these moral principles that is not enough we have to reason through why certain acts are wrong and certain acts are good we have to reason why it is wrong to murder we have to understand for ourselves why it is wrong to steal wrong to lie things like that but even that's not enough it is also important to practice these things it is one thing to understand a moral principle in the abstract but to fully understand it we have to practice we have to work through it virtue ethics is a lot like attending a craft for example cooking if you're handed a recipe by someone well someone whom you trust has given you a means on how to say bake a cake but the recipe is not enough you have to reason through how to bake that cake you have to read the recipe you have to understand it look for the ingredients look for the tools assemble them but even that's not enough now you have to bake the cake and that comes through practice perhaps the first go around the cake doesn't quite work out because you did not do a very good job of measuring and assembling the ingredients or preparing them maybe you had the wrong tools maybe you had the right tools but they were poor basically over time through practice you master this craft this craft of baking a cake and the same thing can go to painting a wall to fixing a car to fixing a technological product like the camera that's filming me now it's not enough to simply know something you have to practice work at it and attain the skill so that you can do these tasks such as baking a cake fixing a car planting a garden those things well and virtue ethics is quite similar you are given a moral principle you're given the reasoning behind that moral principle but it is in the practice of that moral principle that you really and truly understand the wisdom why it is right to do certain things and wrong to do other things why it's right to not murder why it is good to not steal or lie and at the end of the day you know this because you're flourishing and the people around you are flourishing you make the right you have the right motives for be attracting morally you flourish others flourish you pursue the right means toward achieving that good end your flourishing are those are flourishing and then you have the good end and what you have is the good life the good life where and wherein happiness is achieved not happiness as in ha-hee that tickles but that deep down satisfaction that you are living a life that is good where you and others around you are flourishing and how do you know that these more principles are indeed good how do you avoid the trap of relativism well for Catholics we have the natural law those moral principles that we consistently arrive at over and over and over again no matter which epoch we live in or where we live so assuming that we're reasoning correctly we always arrive at the conclusion that it's wrong to murder that it is right to help other people live well that it is wrong to steal that it is wrong to lie that it is right to do acts that help the other flourish as well as ourselves and how do we know unlike say attention that these principles are indeed eternal principles well therein lies the importance of Revelation we have the Ten Commandments we have the Beatitudes we have the Holy Spirit we have those confirmations from revelation that our more reasoning is in correct and moving in the right direction that's why a Catholic would say that the natural law is our participation in the divine law our way of linking our reason to the mind of God we're in what we reason out is confirmed by revelation so we have these virtues these moral principles which have a most reliable foundation because we know that they are rooted in the eternal foundation that is God this is important because can an atheist can a non-christian be virtuous of course they can reason out these moral truths the difference is this their foundation is not as reliable as the foundation of a Christian because they do not have that means through natural law through this form of reasoning through revelation to get at a surely reliable foundation of morality okay so having established virtue ethics where does it come from well originally comes from the pagan Greeks Aristotle is is Nicomachean ethics delivers a wonderful exposition of virtue ethics he didn't invent it he received it but he does one of the best jobs in articulating it fully locked on tias is a third and fourth century lived in the turn of that century Christian a church father and in his Institute's he enables Christians to take virtue ethics up for themselves the early church had doubts about Christian about virtue ethics because they thought that because it was pagan in origin that there was problem with it but locked aankia said no as long as you understand that virtue ethics come from the one true God and not the gods the false gods of the pagan then you're fine so with locked on Tia's we can say that all virtues are rooted in the one true God and we arrive at them through revelation and through reason now virtue ethics are based on four cardinal virtues they're the chief virtues in which all the virtues flow from so prudence prudence is the ability to judge well the ability to take those eternal moral principles and apply them to specific situations so our moral principles remain eternal how we apply them can change from time to time and from place to place so how do we make the best application of these eternal moral truths it is by the ability to judge well and that comes through practice for Christians prudence is the chief cardinal virtue because if you can't reason well then the rest of these you can't do well justice is the ability to give others their due that's a big task how do you know what someone is do that's a big question which we will be answering throughout the semester fortitude also known as courage and courage by the way comes from the French kadosh strength of heart our style called fortitude or courage the primary virtue he also called it the rarest virtue now a Christian would not agree with our städel that this is the primary virtue thinking well is most important but a Christian perhaps may agree with our STOVL that courage is the rarest virtue it's very easy to not exercise fortitude fortitude is the virtue whereby we are virtuous we are moral no matter the opposition no matter how much one suffers no matter the trials and tribulations of life and that can be a very rare virtue indeed especially in the business world it's very easy to slink away and not exercise virtuous behavior but it takes the help of a community of character to give you fortitude it takes the help of God and the Holy Spirit to give you fortitude to exercise that courage to always be moral no matter what temperance is a misunderstood virtue it does not mean abstinence it does not mean moderation alone it can include that but Terrence is best understood as exercising things in proper portion and in proper order so sometimes it's alright to feast it's temperate to feast other times it is temperent too fast to abstain we'll talk about that as the semester progresses one critic critique of virtue ethics what about extreme cases so let's say I am a Coast Guard helicopter pilot and there are two people stuck in a tree and I only have time to rescue one because the water is rising who do I rescue critics of virtue ethics would say that we cannot handle moral dilemmas like that we can basically virtue ethics says if you master through practice if you master within a community of character the ability to reason well to handle day-to-day moral questions then you'll have the ability to deal with those extreme cases not that you'll wind up on the other end of those extreme cases happy but at least you'll wind up with a clear conscience with your head held high knowing that you made the best most Prudential most virtuous most Christian decision possible

Channel: Benedictine University - Mesa Theology Channel

Views: 48,419

Rating: 4.6056337 out of 5

Keywords: Virtue Ethics, Natural Law, Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, Courage

Id: _1t7buCDSqc

Length: 12min 6sec (726 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 20 2013