Philosophy as a whole is a broad, expansive topic. When I explored it in greater detail in refined research, I looked into Ethics (moral philosophy), philosophy of the mind, and cause and effect. When undergoing this refined research, I most enjoyed the ethical side of philosophy, more specifically Virtue Ethics. As Phase 1 is fairly short, I will narrow in and focus on Virtue Ethics for one of my four themes. I have always enjoyed philosophy and ethics and studied it for a while during GCSE and A level. The thoughts of philosophers and their suggestions to how we can live our lives are interesting as most of the theories and teaching originate from thousands or hundreds of years ago. This interests me, as I wonder how practical these theories are to modern-day life. Most regions of thought developed within a period, and as new ways of thinking and new theories originated, old practices and beliefs often died out. What interests me specifically about Virtue Ethics, however, is that it has had a revival period in recent times. Although virtue ethics was first introduced to western society by Aristotle who proposed 12 virtues to live by, it has maintained support and criticism and is still being debated today

 

Modern philosophers such as Alasdair McIntyre and Phillipa Foot have commented on virtue ethics and proposed how it can be related to modern life. I think there is value to virtue ethics, as it provides people with a set of guideline to live by, similarly to how the Decalogue provides guidance for Christians. In the case of virtue ethics, there's no downside to believing in such theories, at the end of the day the worst thing that happens is a person lives life trying to do what they think is best for the collective. In regard to modern-day practices, virtue Ethics can be related to business ethics as well as behaviourism. As this aspect of philosophy is rich with content, and the fact that virtue ethics is still being discussed to this day, I feel like there will be plenty of interesting research left for me to uncover if I take this into phase two.