ETHICS OF
ASPIRATION
“What Lifetime Goals
Should I Set For Myself?”
• What should I value?
• To what should I aspire?
• What should I pursue in life?
• What path(s) should I take?
Alice’s Encounter with
the Cheshire Cat
“The cat only grinned when it
saw Alice. It looked goodnatured she thought; still it had
very long claws and a great
many teeth so she felt it ought
to be treated with respect.
‘Cheshire puss,’ she began,
rather timidly as she did not at
all know whether it would like
the name. However, it only
grinned a little wider. ‘Come,
it’s pleased so far,’ thought
Alice and she went on...
‘Would you tell me please which
way I ought to go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on
where you want to get to,’ said
the Cat. ‘I don’t much care
where,’ said Alice. ‘Then it
doesn’t much matter which
way you go,’ said the Cat.--’Oh,
so long as I get somewhere!’
Alice added as an exclamation.
‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’
said the Cat, ‘if you only walk
long enough.’ ”
Lewis Carroll
“WHAT
IS (OR ARE)
THE
GOAL (OR GOALS)
OF LIFE?”
“Begin with the end in mind.”*
Stephen R. Covey
The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People
* Based on the principle that all
things are created twice. There’s
first a mental image, a vision;
followed by the creating, bringing
into reality, the thing itself.
“Imagination is the
beginning of creation.
You image what you
desire, you will what you
imagine, and at last you
create what you will.”
George Bernard Shaw
“What you SEE
determines
who you ARE...
and
who you ARE
determines
what you DO.”
Huston Smith
professor,
philosophy of religion
“WHAT’S IT ALL
ABOUT?”
Aristotle’s answer:
Greek: “Eudaimonia”
English: Happiness/Well- Being
ARISTOTLE’S
DEFINITION OF
HAPPINESS
“A complete life, lived in
accordance with
virtue,and attended by a
moderate supply of
external goods.”
“A COMPLETE
LIFE...”
“… LIVED IN
ACCORDANCE WITH
VIRTUE”
Virtue in the Greek is
“ARETE” … literally
meaning excellence.
Virtue = Excellence
Rachels on Virtues
• 13.1 The Ethics of Virtue and the
Ethics of Right Action
Apryl
• 13.2 The Virtues
Kerri
• 13.3 Some Advantages of Virtue
Ethics
13.4 The Problem of
Incompleteness
Reny
VIRTUE/EXCELLENCE
understood by the Greeks
as
“FULLMENT OF
FUNCTION”
VIRTUE(S)
The CHARACTERistics of an
individual’s personality that
motivates them to fulfill their
nature and potential as human
beings.
CHARACTER=INTEGRITY
Manifesting those qualities
which are integral to being an
excellent human being.
“Virtue is not given by
money, but that from
virtue comes money,
and every other good of
man, public as well as
private.”
Socrates
Virtues are conditions
for personal success
within a social fabric
Socrates
“Only a virtuous
people are capable of
freedom. Nothing is
more important for
the public weal than
to form and train up
youth in wisdom and
virtue.”
Benjamin Franklin
To live the happy life, one must
live a virtuous life, which is a
life of excellence; with
excellence understood as:
• Fulfilling the Function
of being a human being,
and
• Fulfilling our unique function
of being an individual person.
VIRTUES FOR
ARISTOTLE
• Moral
• Intellectual
MORAL VIRTUE
Rationally Controlling One’s Behavior
The (CHARACTER)istics of an
individual’s personality (psyche)
which motivates them to control
their behavior by abiding by rules of
morality are virtues. With the rules
of morality being those
rules/behaviors necessary for
successful social living.
ARISTOTLE’S
MODEL
Deficiency
Golden Mean
Excess
Cowardice
Excess Fear
Courage
Strength to
Venture
Rashness
Deficient Fear
Frugality
Miserly/Stingy
Liberality
Generous
Prodigality
Wasteful/
Spendthrift
Abstinence
Austere/
Deprivation
Temperance
Self-Restraint
Gluttony
Greedy/Insatiable
Humility
Self-Deprecating
Pride
Self-Respect
Vanity
Arrogant/Boastful
PLATO’S VIRTUES
Three Dimensions
of Human Life
Corresponding
Virtues
Appetitive
(Feeling/Desiring)
Temperance
Spirited
(Willing)
Courage
Rational
(Thinking)
Wisdom
The Republic
VIRTUES
Aristotle:
Temperance,
Courage, Justice,
Self-Respect,
Liberality
Acquinas:
Temperance,
Courage, Justice,
Prudence
Theological:
Faith, Hope, Love
Englehardt:
Tolerance,
Liberality, Prudence
INTELLECTUAL
VIRTUE/EXCELLENCE
Pursuit and Contemplation
of Truth
• Truly unique function of the human
is rationality…our self-conscious
reflection of on our lives and their
direction.
• Led Aristotle to conclude that our
intellect/rationality is the noblest part
of our nature.
• Therefore, to truly “fulfil our
function” as humans…to be
virtuous; we must cultivate our
intellectuality--we must be continual
learners.
• Learning, the growth and
development of all of our capacities
through experience is core to our
being. We are learning beings.
• “All men by nature desire to know.”
(Aristotle)
“If happiness consists of
virtuous activity, it must be the
activity of the highest virtue,or
in other words, of the best part
of our nature…We conclude
then that happiness reaches as
far as the power of thought
does, and that the greater a
person’s power of thought, the
greater will be his happiness;
not as something accidental but
in virtue of his thinking, for that
is noble itself. Hence happiness
must be a form of
contemplation.”
Aristotle
“I don’t think we are here to be
happy…we are here to learn.”
Scott Peck, author
The Road Less Traveled
“Education (learning) is not
preparation for life…it is life
itself.”
John Dewey
American philosopher
VICES
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mendacity (lying)
Cowardice
Rashness
Frugality
Vanity
Humility (in the sense of
self-deprecating)
Greed
Envy
Deceitfulness
Sloth (laziness, indolence)
Cruelty
Contempt
Treachery (willful betrayal
of confidence or trust)
Avarice (immoderate desire
for wealth)
VIRTUES (AND
VICES)
AS
HABITS
“We are what we
repeatedly do.”
Aristotle
“There is nothing
training cannot do.
Nothing is above its
reach. It can turn
bad morals to good;
it can destroy bad
principles and
recreate good
ones…”
Mark Twain
“The beginning of a habit is like
an invisible thread that every
time we repeat the act we
strengthen the strand, add to it
another filament, until it
becomes a great cable and
binds us irrevocably, thought
and act.”
Orison Swett Marden
“… ATTENDED BY A
MODERATE SUPPLY
OF EXTERNAL
GOODS.”
“Eight Ages of Life”
Erik Erikson
in Childhood and Society
• Eight “Psychosocial Ages,” span human life, each
with its unique “psychosocial task,”
• Final task is:
“integrity versus dispair”
• Integrity:
– Lived a Good Life
– Lived a Fulfilling Life
– Lived a Life Realizing My Potential
– Lived a Live of Continual Learning
– Lived a Happy Life
• Despair:
– Lived an Undisciplined Life
– Lived a Life of Unrealized Potential
– Lived a Life of Unfulfilled Aspirations
– Lived a Life Failing to Learn
– Lived a Life of Unhappiness
SUMMARY
• Goal of life is happiness.
• Happiness is well-being; in our
existence to be well.
• Being well is intimately linked to
fulfilling our function as humans.
• Fulfilling our function is
dependent on living life of
excellence, or to use the Greek … a
life of virtue.
• With the virtues understood as
those personal qualities (developed
as habitual ways of acting) which
are critical to living successfully in
a social setting, that is, with other
humans.
LIFE’S MORAL
IMPERATIVE
“To Be What One Is
Potentially; A Person … In
A Community of Persons.”
Paul Tillich
“Don’t Scream At
Death When You
Realize You Were
Not All You Could
Have Been.”
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
in On Death and Dying