Extract from Teachers Notes Virtue Ethics
Activity One
It has been said that we can achieve the virtues through the three “E’s”: emulation,
education and experience. Explain what these three “E’s” mean and try and give an
example of how these might work.
Activity Two
For the Greeks, it wasn’t only humans who exhibit areté. Everything - objects, plants
and animals too - have their own specific purpose: knives cut; plants bear fruit,
racehorses run. We judge a thing as excellent when it performs its particular function
well. An excellent knife cuts easily, an excellent plant bears high-quality fruit, an
excellent horse runs well. In your opinion then what is our function?
Activity Three
Environmental Virtue Ethics {EVE} asks what characterises an environmentally
virtuous person and explores the virtuous qualities that are required to live a
flourishing life in nature – shifting emphasis away from duty or consequences to who
we are and how we are to live in the natural world. In your opinion what are these
environmental virtues?
Activity Four
The Mean
Daedalus, an Athenian inventor is imprisoned in a labyrinth on Crete with a flesh
eating Minotaur. Desperate to escape, he fashions for himself and Icarus his son two
pairs of wings made out of wax and feathers. Daedalus warns his son that he must
fly a middle course, a mean, between sea and sun, or the sea spray will dampen his
wings and the sun melt his wax. However Icarus, overwhelmed by the exhilarating
sense of flight, soars so high that his wax melts and he plunges to his death.
According to the Doctrine of the Mean, virtue is a mean state between extremes of
excess and deficiency. For example the virtue of “assertiveness” stands in the mean
state between over ‘confidence’ {excess} and ‘shyness’ {deficiency}; “courage”
between the excess of ‘rashness’ and the deficiency of ‘cowardice’. Try and work out
the excesses and deficiencies of the following virtues: temperance, generosity,
magnanimity, wit, friendliness and justice.
Activity Five
Design a Poster based on the following information:
Referred to by Saint Thomas Aquinas as "The Philosopher" and by Dante as "Master
of those that know", Aristotle is considered by many to be the greatest genius the
world has ever seen. He was the father of research and empirical science, and the
founder of such diverse disciplines as logic, psychology, political science, literary
criticism, scientific grammar, physics, physiology, biology and most other natural
sciences. Some scholars have described the intellectual history of western
civilization as a permanent debate in which Aristotle has sometimes triumphed and
sometimes not, but in which at all times his spirit and principles have acted as the
substructure and inspiration of progress.
Activity Six
Observe yourself: In Virtue Ethics character traits are stable, fixed, and reliable
dispositions. If someone possesses the character trait of kindness, we would expect
him or her to act kindly in all sorts of situations, towards all kinds of people, and over
a long period of time, even when it is difficult to do so. A person with a certain
character can be relied upon to act consistently over a time. With a friend discuss as
sincerely as you can what character traits you possess and which character traits
you lack and would like to develop.
Activity Seven
Moral character develops over a long period of time. We’re born with all sorts of
natural tendencies. Some of these natural tendencies will be positive, such as a
placid or friendly nature, and some will be negative, such as an irritable or jealous
nature. These natural tendencies are developed, discouraged or thwarted by the
influences we’re exposed to. How do you think factors such as your parent {s}, your
relatives, teachers, peer group, role-models, the media, have affected your character
development?
Activity Eight
For Aristotle, the Supreme Good is happiness, for happiness is something we want
in and of it-self and not because it leads to still some other good. Aristotle dismisses
popular views that happiness is physical pleasure or wealth. For him ‘happiness’ is
eudaimonia, a harmonious well-being, a ‘flourishing’ of one’s life. Eudaimonia is
intrinsically related to virtue; a happy life cannot be one in which virtue is ignored. It
is virtue that will make us happy. Do you agree? Give some examples of things that
you consider will help you live a ‘flourishing life’.
Activity Nine
Aristotle thought that developing the virtues was a necessary feature of living
alongside other people. His ethics are social and political, not just personal. Alasdair
Macintyre argues that we’ve lost moral wisdom because we’ve neglected the
heritage of moral discourse and abandoned the principle of telos and the sense that
human life has a purpose. Watch the News {internet/TV/ newspapers} and jot down
some of the issues facing us and some virtues that appear to be lacking.