Virtue
Vice and Virtue in Everyday
Life
Chapter 5
Happiness and the
Virtues, Aristotle
► Happiness
is the highest of all practical
goods.
► Three types of life: pleasure, political,
and contemplative.
► True happiness is virtuous activity of
the soul.
Aristotle
► Virtue
has to do with our actions and
our feelings.
► The Doctrine of the Mean
► Happiness is not the same thing as
amusement.
► Happiness and contemplation
Virtue and the Human Soul,
Augustine
► Man’s
chief good is happiness.
► The chief good of the body is the soul.
► Virtue perfects the soul.
► In following God we live well and are
happy.
The Art of Living,
Epictetus
► What
is truly under our control?
► Desires are dangerous.
► All of us must play our assigned parts.
► We must despise what is not up to us.
The World of Epictetus,
Stockdale
► Stockdale’s
captivity in Viet Nam
► Education should illuminate values.
► Integrity is essential.
► Life is not fair.
► Entering the world of Epictetus
► Theatrics
Virtue or Duty? Mayo
► Neither
universalizability nor
maximizing happiness is the basic
moral issue.
► The basic moral question is Aristotle’s:
“What kind of person shall I be?”
► The unity of character
► Heroes and saints give us an example
to follow.
Tradition and the
Virtues, MacIntyre
► Humans
are essentially story-telling
animals.
► The unity of a life
► My history and roles constitute my
moral starting points.
► Virtues sustain traditions.
The Ethics of Virtue,
Rachels
► Should
we return to the ethics of
virtue?
► An explanation of the ethics of virtue
► Some particular virtues: courage,
honesty, generosity, loyalty
► The importance of the virtues
► Pros and cons of virtue ethics
Of Justice and Beneficence, Adam
Smith
► There
is a connection between our
moral sentiments and moral virtue.
► Justice should be compelled.
► Lack of benevolence is blameworthy,
but not punishable.
► Consciousness of merit
The Origin of the Moral
Sense, Darwin
► Animals
with social instincts will
probably acquire a moral sense.
► Social instincts are the source of the
moral sense.
The Parable of the Sadhu, Bowen
McCoy
► The
story of the ascent and the discovery of
the sadhu
► The individual ethic and the corporate ethic
► Assumption of responsibility
► The lesson of the sadhu for all of us