PHILOS 2YY3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Virtue Ethics
27 Sep 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Doctrine of the mean: a virtue is an intermediate state between excess and deficiency (vices) E. g. cowardice courage rashness; stingy generous wasteful. Defense is common sense: in the natural world, deficiency and excess destroys things. E. g. eating too little, eating right amount, eating too much. Mean relative to us : everyone"s mean is different. E. g. too much food for someone is right amount for someone else, generosity varies based on income. Aristotle"s definition of virtuous action: action is x is virtuous if: X is appropriate in circumstances, according to virtue. Agent performing action x knows the above. Agent chooses x for its own sake. X comes from an unchangeable character trait (the related virtue) ** agent experiences pleasure as by-product of being virtuous. Action x is only right if it is what a virtuous agent would do characteristically. Apply them to the situation (what does this virtue require here?) Clearly state what a virtuous person would do and why.
