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Overview of Virtue Ethics

• Virtue ethics is an ethical approach that emphasizes the importance of moral virtue and character.

• Virtues are morally good dispositions to think, feel, and act well in some domain of life, while vices are morally bad dispositions.

• Virtues and vices involve both affective and intellectual components.

• Phronesis, or practical wisdom, is an acquired trait that enables its possessor to identify the right thing to do in any given situation.

• Eudaimonia, or human flourishing, is the proper goal of human life according to Aristotle.

• Virtues are habits or qualities that allow the bearer to succeed at their purpose.

• Virtue ethics originated in ancient Greek philosophy and was developed further by philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics.

• Contemporary virtue ethics has seen a revival with the aretaic turn in moral philosophy.

• There are several lists of virtues, including Aristotle's list of approximately eighteen virtues.

• Virtue ethics faces criticisms such as not providing guidance for action, being historically and culturally contingent, and not focusing on what actions are morally permitted or impermissible.

• Virtue ethics is sometimes subsumed in deontology and utilitarianism.

• Virtue ethics can be applied to various areas of philosophy, such as epistemology, political theory, and jurisprudence.Virtue Ethics: An Overview

• Virtue ethics is a normative ethical theory that emphasizes the importance of character and virtues over rules and consequences.

• The theory focuses on developing good habits and character traits that help individuals lead a good life and make ethical decisions.

• Virtue ethics is often contrasted with deontological ethics and consequentialist ethics.

• Deontological ethics emphasizes duty and adherence to ethical principles, while consequentialist ethics focuses on the outcomes or consequences of actions.

• Virtue ethics differs from both of these theories in that it emphasizes being over doing and identifies virtues as desirable characteristics that the moral person embodies.

• The theory is often associated with Aristotle and his belief in the importance of the polis and the role of virtues in enabling human beings to flourish in that environment.

• Contemporary virtue ethicists include Alasdair MacIntyre, Philippa Foot, Bernard Williams, and John McDowell, among others.

• Critics of virtue ethics argue that it is inconsistent, promotes unsustainable utopianism, and does not provide enough significance to the idea of "duty."

• Virtue ethics has a number of contemporary applications, including in the fields of social ethics, philosophy of education, and healthcare.

• Shannon Vallor proposed a series of "technomoral" virtues that people need to cultivate in order to flourish in our socio-technological world.

• The debate over the meaning of virtue points to a larger conflict between virtue theory and its philosophical rivals, which do not bear the burden of a teleological account of human life.