The Importance Of Virtue Ethics

To begin with, Aristotle believed that the end goal for every individual is happiness or eudemonia. In this way of thinking, moral decisions are dictated by how one lives their life. Virtue considered to some, is a trait that is admired and desired because it is a constituent of human excellence. In society, individuals who have this trait flourish intrinsically and provides a society that is worth living in. Virtue ethics solely emphasizes admirable characteristic traits rather than the actions performed by that individual.

However, some argue that the charge of virtue ethics is impractical and it doesn’t provide any rules making moral decisions in complex situations. Those that are virtuous often do not need to over think temptations that

This means virtue is partly intellectual and partly moral. To apply moral value in situations one has to be able to do it out of habit. For instance, to become a violinist one has to form a habit of playing the violin. Moral virtue is not naturally implanted in one. Not to mention, Daniel Statman, a well known philosopher, claims that even “ the virtuous person is not the person who has excellent knowledge of some set of principles, meta principles, and meta-meta principles, but the person who has right perception as to which rules should apply here and now. And this person, must be, among other things, sensitive, compassionate perceptive- the same features so praised in virtue ethics” (524). Statman’s comment is trying to acknowledge how a virtuous character is more fundamental to ethics than rules are. In other words, Statman is like Aristotle, claiming that principles of how one lives can not create a virtuous person.

Given these points, being able to form a virtuous habit and applying it to situations will not only create a morally virtuous person but also an virtuous intellectual. If the individual is reluctant at giving back a valuable item that someone had lost to fulfill his or her own desires then that person is not considered virtuous. While, another is more than ready to help that person in distress, and if he or she already had been practicing good virtuous ethics then that individual is already like