Question

How does one’s personal ethics intersect with one’s professional ethics? Can these be in harmony, or must there be inevitable conflicts? What might Aristotle say about this? Can we be happy without being virtuous?

Answer 1

Most of the time, people would look for jobs that they would think aligns with their personal goals and ethics. However, there are also times when individuals would find themselves in a conflict when their profession requires different behaviors and actions. This would mean that although people are individually corrupt, one might behave well when placed in a better situation with better control and the reverse is also true that a better person might be forced to behave in an unethical way if placed in a negative environment. Socrates virtue ethics places the emphasis on the person and not on the action, thus, it emphasizes on the character and virtue of the person. It thus assumes that the actions of a virtuous person would be ethical. So, virtuous people would remain ethical in any circumstance no matter what the circumstances are.

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