Origins

Being "virtuous" has been theorised since ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle wrote and developed on the idea that a person can live there life acting in the middle ground between two vices. The concept has been debated since, and the underlying belief is that morality of the individual stems from their character and the way they think and behave, rather than the consequences of their actions. Despite this being a topic of debate that started over 2000 years ago, I still believe it has merit to everyday life. I believe a person should try to live virtuously, that is to say, they should try to do the greatest good for the greatest amount.

 

Why it interests me

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The reason why virtue ethics interests me is that I believe it needs to be practised more. People need to act with sympathy and consideration of how their actions might affect others. Virtue ethics gives this platform to people to try and work out what action might be the best for the situation, by working out which action displays the vices. Furthermore, I find it really interesting that a collection of ancient theories can relate so much to modern-day society, this can be displayed by the current arguments which are still being made in favour of virtue ethics by modern-day philosophers. Unfortunately, I feel like society promotes self-interested behaviours, so I think there is a merit for a subject like this to be explored and to be given value.

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Aristotle's Virtues

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Aristotle's virtues brought a lot of attention to this side of ethics. He proposed there were 12 virtues that we should live by. An example of this is "courage" which he believed was between two vices, "rashness" an excess and "cowardice" which is a deficiency. Although he had suggested 12 vices, I believe that the same can be applied to any situation. Although the 12 vices seem to cover a lot of scenarios if there are more virtues than I think this could be beneficial to help spread positivity.