Question

In roughly 2-3 paragraphs, evaluate the theory of virtue ethics. To do this, you will need to

1. Present and explain the key components of the theory;
2. State and describe the strongest criticisms of the theory;
3. Evaluate the strength of those criticisms;
4. Offer a final assessment of the theory

Answer 1

One of the most important and oldest ethical theories was offered by Aristotle which is Virtue ethics. Virtue ethics suggests that people with good character would always engage in virtuous actions while people with bad character would engage in vicious acts. This would mean that the actions of the virtuous people would be life long and not expressed in few instances. Thus, unlike the Kantian duty ethics, it doesn’t care about fulfilling duties or utilitarianism in looking at the consequences but the intentions.

One of the most important criticism against virtue ethics is that what is good and bad would be determined by the society and if society determines actions in favour of the majority and neglect the minority, the actions of the minorities would become vicious and although the actions of the majority oppress the minority, it would still be considered virtuous as happened in the US with the institution of slavery. However, virtue ethics is worried about the social norms present in a particular period of time and would consider only the socially approved actions in that time period. Nevertheless, good people would always go beyond the social norms and remain good as people in the North did to the slaves. So, virtue ethics is still relevant and people need to hold on to the good characters that would motivate them to engage in virtuous acts.

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