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Virtue Ethics

Virtue Ethics is a moral philosophy that emphasizes the development of good character traits and actions aligned with those of virtuous individuals, as championed by Aristotle. Aristotle's ethics focus on self-realization, happiness, and the importance of virtues in achieving a flourishing life, while Thomas Aquinas builds on this by linking happiness to virtue and introducing a typology of laws, including eternal, natural, human, and divine laws. Aquinas asserts that true happiness is ultimately found in the afterlife, while human laws should align with natural law to guide moral conduct.

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7 views9 pages

Virtue Ethics

Virtue Ethics is a moral philosophy that emphasizes the development of good character traits and actions aligned with those of virtuous individuals, as championed by Aristotle. Aristotle's ethics focus on self-realization, happiness, and the importance of virtues in achieving a flourishing life, while Thomas Aquinas builds on this by linking happiness to virtue and introducing a typology of laws, including eternal, natural, human, and divine laws. Aquinas asserts that true happiness is ultimately found in the afterlife, while human laws should align with natural law to guide moral conduct.

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Virtue Ethics

(De Guzman,
2017)
Virtue Ethics is a moral philosophy that focuses on
the character of an individual and emphasizes the
development of good habits of character.
According to Virtue Ethics, an action is considered
right if it is something that a virtuous person would
do in the same situation.
Virtuous individuals are those who possess and live
by virtues, which are moral characteristics necessary
for living well.
This ethical theory, championed by thinkers like
Aristotle, highlights the importance of developing all
aspects of human faculties, including intellectual,
physical, social, and moral capacities.
Pursuing ethical excellence is achieved by developing
and displaying virtuous traits, which guide individuals
to live morally upright lives.
Aristotle’s Ethics
At least two (2) of Aristotle's works specifically concern morality, the Eudemian Ethics
and the Nicomachean
Ethics. But since only a few have studied the former, the Nicomachean Ethics has
been regarded as the Ethics of Aristotle since the beginning of the Christian era.
Three general descriptions, which are interrelated, can be used to depict Aristotle's
ethics. First, his ethical system may be termed "self-realizationism." In his philosophy, when
someone acts in line with his nature
or end ('telos') and thus realizes his full potential, he does moral and will be happy.
Aristotle's view is also of a type known as eudaimonistic. As such, it focuses on
happiness (eudaimonia),
or the good for man, and how to obtain it.
Finally, his moral philosophy is aretoic, or virtue-based. Whereas act-oriented ethics is
focused mainly on
what we should do, a virtue ethics is interested basically in what we should be, that is, the
character or the
sort of person we should struggle to become.
Aristotle's “Telos”. A “telos” is an end or purpose. Aristotle believed that the essence or essential
nature
of beings, including humans, lay not at their cause (or beginning) but at their end (“telos”).
Happiness and Virtues. Aristotle believed that the ultimate human goal is self-realization. This
entails
achieving one's natural purpose by functioning or living consistently with human nature. Accomplishing it,
in turn, produces happiness; whereas inability to realize it leads to sadness, frustration, and ultimately to
poor life. It therefore behooves us to act in accordance with our nature to be content and complete.
Ethics, for Aristotle, is the inquiry into the human good. This is to say that the purpose of studying ethics is
to make ourselves good, though Aristotle assumes that we already want to become good. This human good
is eudaimonia or happiness.
Virtue as Habit. Aristotle's idea of happiness should also be understood in the sense of human flourishing.
This flourishing is attained by the habitual practice of moral and intellectual excellences, or 'virtues'.
Related to self-realization, acting in line with virtues is acting in accordance with reason. The function of
human being, accordingly, consists in activities which manifest the best states of his rational aspect, that is
the virtues.
Thomas Aquinas’ Ethics
Also called the Angelic Doctor and the Prince of Scholastics, Thomas Aquinas is an Italian philosopher and
theologian who ranks among the most important thinkers of the medieval time period.
In Ethics, Aquinas depends so heavily on Aristotle. Like the Greek philosopher, Aquinas believes that all
actions are directed towards ends and that happiness is the final end. Aquinas thinks that happiness
consists in activities in accordance with virtue. Aquinas declared that ultimate happiness is not attainable
in
this life, for happiness in the present life remains imperfect. True happiness, then, is to be found only in
the
souls of the blessed in heaven or in beatitude with God.
The Natural Law. Central also in Aquinas ethics is his typology of laws. By the term 'law,' he means an
ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by someone who has care of the community.
Aquinas' laws should also be understood in terms of "rules and measures" for people's conduct and as
"rational patterns or forms." Obedience to the law is thus viewed also as participating in or being in
conformity with the pattern or form.
For Aquinas, there are four primary types of law: the
eternal, natural, human, and divine.

The (1) eternal law refers to the rational plan of God


by which all creation is ordered. As God is the
supreme
ruler of everything, the rational pattern or form of
the universe that exists in His mind is the law that
directs
everything in the universe to its appointed end. To
this eternal law, everything in the universe is subject.
The (2) natural law is that aspect of the eternal law which is accessible to human reason. Because
mankind
is part of the eternal order, there is a portion of the eternal law that relates specifically to human
conduct.
This is the moral law, the law or order to which people are subject by their nature
ordering them to do good
and avoid evil.

The (3) human law refers to the positive laws. For natural law to be adhered to, more
exact and forceful
provisions of human law are helpful. Because the natural law is too broad to provide particular guidance,
the human law's precise, positive rules of behavior are supposed to spell out what the natural law
prescribes.
Moral virtues are also reinforced by and cultivated through these human laws. This human law includes
the
civil and criminal laws, though only those formulated in the light of practical reason and moral laws.
Human
laws that are against natural law are not real laws, and people are not obliged to obey those unjust laws
The (4) divine law serves to complement the other
types of law. It is a law of revelation, disclosed
through
sacred text or Scriptures and the Church which is also
directed toward man's eternal end. Though
concerned also with external aspects of conduct, the
divine law is more focused on how man can be
inwardly
holy and eventually attain salvation.

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