AQA Religious Studies - Ethics - Normative Ethical Theories - Virtue Ethics - Full in depth notes according to the specification, including quotes, key thinkers and everything needed to achieve an A*.
Background:
• Aristotle.
• Book - Nicomachean Ethics.
• Virtue = a disposition/ character trait that is valued.
• Person centred approach as it focuses on the character of the person making the moral deci-
sions, rather than the decision itself. Their motivation and its impact on them is key.
• Virtue Ethics attempts to break away from he limitations of deontology and consequentialism.
• Reject a priori laws and an ‘is’ becoming an ‘ought’.
Aims:
• Aristotle believed that everything is aimed towards a purpose, teleological claim.
• There is a relationship between goodness and function. Something is good if it achieves its final
end (e.g. a good knife cuts well).
• The final end of people is eudaimonia (happiness/well-being).
• Phronesis is practical wisdom - this enables us to reflect on what ought to be done to be virtuous.
• A life of flourishing (the good life) can be achieved through the pursuit of moral virtues and also
intellectual virtues such as theoria. This means contemplation - it has an intrinsic value and is
done for its own sake. We ought to contemplate the highest objects of knowledge, which Aristotle
deemed to be scientific discoveries.
Aristotle’s Division of the Soul:
• Humans have a rational soul. The good life is one where reason is exercised well.
• Rational part = theoretical virtues e.g. maths, philosophy, judgement. These are under the con-
trol of wisdom.
• Non-rational part = emotions and appetites. Develops virtues of character e.g. courage, patience
and modesty.
The Golden Mean:
• Aristotle encouraged moral virtues such as courage, temperance and justice.
• Virtue lies between the two extremes: the excess and the deficiency, which are vices.
• It is arrived at through the use of phronesis and rational deliberation.
• The mean is relative to the situation and what is appropriate/right for the individual.
• The person aims to develop into a phronimos (a man of practical wisdom).
• Searching for the golden mean helps to develop a person’s good character traits.
• “Virtue is a characteristic marked y choice, residing in the mean relative to us, a characteristic
defined by reason.”
• Deficiency = Envy, Excess = Spite, Virtue = Just Resentment.
• Deficiency = Miserliness, Excess = Rashness, Virtue = Prudence.
• To be virtuous involves your will, you cannot be virtuous by accident. When our act is motivated
by a virtue it constitutes a proper intention. This cannot be pleasure, honour and wealth.
Outcomes:
• A person’s virtuousness is to be judged over their whole life not isolated instances.
• By nature, people are neither good nor evil, but have the capacity to become good or evil by
training. Moral virtues are formed by habit.
• We must choose to act virtuously, not merely following rules.
• We learn from the example of virtuous people.
• We do not exist insulation. Society works best when we fulfil our functions. Each sector of society
has a particular role - Aristotle used the analogy of the organs of the human body to explain this.
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