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Virtue Ethics

Virtue Ethics. James A. Van Slyke. Aristotle. Humans are teleological beings Live to achieve a certain telos or goal Virtues Goods which help to achieve a telos Virtue of character – live according to reason Virtue of thought – contemplate reasons. Virtues.

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Virtue Ethics

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  1. Virtue Ethics James A. Van Slyke

  2. Aristotle • Humans are teleological beings • Live to achieve a certain telos or goal • Virtues • Goods which help to achieve a telos • Virtue of character – live according to reason • Virtue of thought – contemplate reasons

  3. Virtues • Internal goods which lead to proper action • Rule-governed ethics Doing • Virtue-governed ethics Being

  4. Seek the Mean • Strength of character involves finding the proper balance between two extremes. • Excess: having too much of something. • Deficiency: having too little of something. • The virtuous person embodies the wisdom of learning from one’s mistakes

  5. Finding the Mean

  6. Finding the Mean

  7. Moral Development • Two Approaches • The Rule-based (child) conception of morality: • External to the Person (parents/society). • Is negative (“don’t touch that stove burner!”). • Rules are central. • The Virtue-based (adult) conception of morality. • Internal to the Person (self-directed). • Is positive (“this is the kind of person I want to be.”). • Virtues are central

  8. Moral Development • Rule following is appropriate for certain stages of life. • Yet, there needs to be a transition to a a larger reliance on internally defined virtues and the development of habits • Adolescence and early adulthood is the time when some people make the transition

  9. Moral Education • Moral education may initially seek to control unruly desires through rules, the formation of habits, etc. • Ultimately, moral education aims at forming rightly-ordered desires, that is, teaching people to desire what is genuinely good for them.

  10. Virtue Ethics • Ethics is not about individual “correct” decisions • Ethics is about learning how to make a decision • Process of developing ethical habits • Ethics is a skill

  11. Transformation • Becoming compassionate • Deficiency: moral callousness • Beginning point • Unable to feel compassion for another • Seeds of Compassion • Both cognitive and emotional • Cognition recognizes the injustice • Emotion feels the suffering of another

  12. Transformation • Emotion • to recognize the suffering of others • emotional attunement • response to the suffering of others • Cognition • Recognize the need for compassion • Change attitudes • Plans for action

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