Virtue Ethics
Peter D Toon
Virtue ethics
• Focus is on personal qualities needed to
flourish
• Flourishing is central
• Not rules or consequences plus personal
qualities needed to achieve these – this is
character deontology of character
consequentialism
Key concepts in virtue ethics
• How should one live?
εὐδαιμονία -eudaimonia
The good life
The life worth living
Happiness
flourishing
Key concepts in virtue ethics
• How should one live?
εὐδαιμονία -eudaimonia
Determined by τέλος telos – end, purpose or goal
Implies a narrative view of life:
“Count no man happy until he is dead” - Solon
Key concepts in virtue ethics
• How should one live?
εὐδαιμονία -eudaimonia
The life of pleasure – Epicurius (Hedonism)
The life of virtue – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the
Stoics
• What is the life of virtue?
Key concepts in virtue ethics
• How should one live?
εὐδαιμονία -eudaimonia
Aristotle – rejects the ideas of a life devoted to
pleasure or to politics
advises a life devoted to friendship and
contemplation
Buzz groups
What are modern ideas of the good life?
What is yours?
Key concepts in virtue ethics
• What personal qualities do you need to
achieve eudaimonia?
• ἀρετή - Arete – virtues or excellences of
character
Intellectual and moral
disposition or habit of acting rightly according
to reason ( Aquinas)
Qualities needed to overcome challenges
(Nussbaum and Sen)
Key concepts in virtue ethics
virtues are usually seen as acquired or learnt
characteristics
- Because these can be changed
- though there is an issue about people who are
naturally virtuous or vicious in various ways
- Much discussion of the issue of “moral luck”
- Eg Nussbaum The Fragility of Goodness
Key concepts in virtue ethics
Traditional catalogue of the seven virtues:
Temperance, Courage, Justice, Wisdom
Faith Hope and Love
A longer list of virtues
Acceptance Accountability, Ambition, Assertiveness, Beauty, Benevolence,
Bravery, Caring, Charity, Chastity, Caution, Cleanliness, Commitment,
Compassion, Confidence, Consideration, Contentment, Cooperation, Courage,
Courtesy, Creativity, Curiosity, Defiance, Dependability, Detachment,
Determination, Devotion, Diligence, Discernment, Discretion, Discipline,
Eloquence, Empathy, Enthusiasm, Excellence, Faith, Faithfulness, Flexibility,
Focus, Forbearance, Forgiveness, Fortitude, Friendliness, Frugality, Generosity,
Gentleness, Grace, Gratitude, Helpfulness, Honesty, Honour, Hope, Humbleness,
Humility, Humor, Idealism, Integrity, Impartiality, Industry, Innocence,
Joyfulness, Justice, Kindness, Knowledge, Liberality, Love, Loyalty, Magnanimity,
Majesty, Meekness, Mercy, Moderation, Modesty, Obedience, Openness,
Orderliness, Patience, Peace, Perseverance, Persistence, Piety, Prudence,
Punctuality, Purity, Purposefulness, Reliability, Resoluteness, Resourcefulness,
Respect, Responsibility, Restraint, Reverence, Righteousness, Selflessness, SelfSacrifice, Service, Sensitivity, Silence, Simplicity, Sincerity, Sobriety, Spontaneity,
Steadfastness, Strength, Tact, Temperance, Thankfulness, Thrift, Tolerance,
Toughness, Tranquility, Trust, Trustworthiness, Truthfulness, Understanding,
Unity, Vitality, Wisdom, Wonder, Zeal
Aristotles virtues - the golden mean
EXCESS
MEAN
DEFICIENCY
Vice
virtue
vice
Aristotles virtues - summary
SPHERE OF ACTION OR
FEELING
EXCESS
MEAN
DEFICIENCY
Anger
Irascibility
Patience/Good temper
Lack of spirit/unirascibility
Self-expression
Boastfulness
Truthfulness
Understatement/mock modesty
Conversation
Buffoonery
Wittiness
Boorishness
Social Conduct
Obsequiousness
Friendliness
Cantankerousness
Shame
Shyness
Modesty
Shamelessness
Indignation
Envy
Righteous indignation
Malicious
enjoyment/Spitefulness
Buzz groups
What virtues are required to flourish as a
practitioner in health care?
Factors which affect your view of the
virtues
Vision of the good
Vision of the good life
The person or role you are considering
-will influence your catalogue of virtues
Key concepts in virtue ethics
Φρόνησις - Phronesis
The central virtue needed to know the virtuous
action
Practical wisdom
Discernment
Prudentia, prudence
Both a moral and an intellectual excellence
Key concepts in virtue ethics
ἀκρασία Akrasia
“weakness of will”
Does it exist?
A problem of reason or of emotion?
How do you acquire virtue?
Modelling – WWJD ( or S or A or B or C)
Reflection on the telos of life, on eudaemonia
and on specific virtues – what is courage,
what is temperance
Narrative and experience based
How do you acquire virtue?
involves training the emotions as well as the
intellect and the will
Can you always become virtuous by trying
harder?
History of virtue ethics – an overview
Plato - Euthyphro, Charmides, Greater
Hippias, Protagoras, Gorgias, Meno
Aristotle – Ethics
Stoics and Epicurians
The Christian synthesis – Gospels and St Paul
- Obligation or virtue based?
Augustine - absolute responsibility to tell the truth,
but “love God and do what you like”
Aquinas – Aristotle
Post Renaissance/ Reformation
Enlightenment
Emphasis on Obligation
Kant – the Categorical Imperative
Betham and Mill – Imperative to maximise
happiness
The 20th Century renaissance
Anscombe
Foot
Slote
Hursthouse
Macintyre
Hursthouse – virtue ethics and
abortion
• Not based on fetal status, woman’s rights or
(specifically) on consequences
• Based on the biological facts and our
emotional reaction to them
Hursthouse – virtue ethics and
abortion
• Pregnancy is a special condition
abortion is not like appendicectomy or hair cut
• a new life or potential new life is a serious matter
and its cutting off is not trivial
• Attitudes to new life change as it develops
• Mixed feelings to a pregnancy are normal
• Family life is part of eudaemonia
viz
our reaction to miscarriage, stillbirth
Hursthouse – virtue ethics and
abortion
Based on these things a virtuous person may
opt for abortion in some circumstances:
Poor physical health, gruellingly adverse
circumstances, will harm existing children,
not ready for the responsibility
not
interfere with my promotion
got a holiday booked
Hursthouse – virtue ethics and
abortion
a virtuous response may well include regret
even when abortion is the virtuous choice,
and may still reflect moral failing –e.g. for
getting in the situation in the first place
Hursthouse – virtue ethics and
abortion
To a considerable extent this reflects the law
we have ( though not always how it is
interpreted)
Does it reflect your moral intuitions?
Alasdair Macintyre – After Virtue
The theory of moral fragmentation since the
Enlightenment
The “partial solution” lies in a unified life
narrative based on engagement in practices in
which the virtues and cultivated an through
which “internal goods” are generated
Moral fragmentation in health care
Fragmented concepts of illness and disease
Platonic and statistical norms
Obstacles to maximising pleasure in
consequentialist terms
In the mind or in the body? Mind-body dualism
Markets and “disease mongering”
Responsibility and illness – cause or effect?
The practice of health care
Collaboration between professionals ( doctors,
nurses, other clinicians, managers,
administrators) and patients
Internal goods – health
Generating a flourishing narrative through the
change of meaning through the interpretative
function as well as by objective change
through biomedical intervention
The practice of health care
What is a flourishing narrative in terms of
health?
A good life and a good death
Illness as challenge which helps generate virtue
The practice of health care
Professionalism and flourishing professionals
What are professional virtues?
Institutions which support professionalism