Aristotle's Virtue Ethics: The Pursuit of Happiness

• Virtue Ethics are accredited to Aristotle.

Aristotle's Bio

• Born in 384 in the Macedonian region of Greece.
• Was the son of a physician.
• In 367, he attended Plato's Academy at the age of 20.
• He traveled around the Greek world.
• In 343, he became a tutor to Alexander.
• Aristotle founded the Lyceum in 335.
• He died in 322 at the age of 62.

The Good

• The aim of action.
• The final and sufficient element in itself.
• The most desirable thing.

Aristotle's Perception of Good

• Considered it happiness.
• Referred to as Eudaimonia, encompassing a fully satisfying, contemplative life.

Acquiring Happiness

• Individuals are born with the capacity for happiness.
• People do not inherently know or possess virtues.
• A child learns and practices virtue, eventually becoming a habit and part of their moral character.
• Nature provides the capacity, but it's gained through choices and actions.
• Knowing the good is insufficient; practicing the good is required.

Being Excellent

• All things in the world have a function.
• The life goal is to do one's function excellently.

Function of Humans

• It consists of activity of the soul in conformity with a rational principle, or at least not without it.
• The goal of a human is to reason.
• To think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic.

Aristotle on Virtues

• Virtue or excellence is a characteristic involving choice, consisting in observing the mean relative to us.
• It is defined by a rational principle, such as a man of practical wisdom would use to determine it.
• A virtue is a quality of good character.

Virtues

• In any action, there are many possible choices.
• The virtuous choice is the mean between the extremes.
• Aim for the median in emotions and actions.
  • Deficiency: Cowardice
  • Mean: Courage
  • Excess: Foolhardiness

Aristotelian Virtues

• Courage: A mean with respect to fear and confidence (Book 3, 1115a).

• Temperance: Appetite, a mean between excess and deficiency (Book 3, 1117b).

• Liberality: Generosity, a mean between extravagance and stinginess (Book 4, 1119b)).

Qualities of Virtuous Actions

• Deliberate awareness of the quality of the act.
  • You must know what you're doing and the consequences.
• A voluntary choice.
  • If you're forced to do an action, it can't be virtuous.
• Must reflect a consistent and established character.
  • A virtuous person makes a habit of virtuous action; one-time acts don't make a person or action virtuous.

Virtue Ethics in Bioethics

• Casuistry
• Role modeling

Casuistry

• Case-based reasoning.
• Consider similar cases from the past.
• Basis for judicial "precedence".

Role Modeling

• Choose a virtuous person who serves as a role model.
• Ask what that person would do.
• Emulate what you think their response would be.

Summary

• The good is the aim of all action.
• The good is happiness (eudaimonia), living a fully satisfying, contemplative life.
• The function of humans is to reason.
• Virtues are means between the extremes, with deliberate awareness of the act, voluntary choice, and a consistent & established character.