PHILOS 2YY3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Virtue Ethics, Deontological Ethics, Moral Agency
16 May 2018
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PHILOS 2YY3 – Mar 22 2018
Critique of Virtue Ethics
To Be or To Do?
• Virtues are dispositions of character acquired through habituating our thoughts and
feelings → virtue ethics says, be this so that you ay do that, ad i doig so that you
will become this
o Kant: without a good will, you can have virtuous dispositions – you can be
courageous, and generous but you can be courageous about doing nasty things
▪ Theres othig aout ourage itself, ho it ought to e used
o Corret haituatio doest simply involve cognitive features – we are not
habituating judgement, but we are habituating ourselves emotionally
o If e at to eoe irtuous, e say e this, ad the you ill do irtuous
things
• Duties are obligations an agent has by observing fundamental principles of action →
deontology says, do this so that you ay be that, ad i eig that you ill e ale to
do this
o Deontology – if e at to ko hats right, ad hat those atios are, that
reason is going to involve as an absolute action
o Do this – act in accordance to this universal maxim
o Priority – what comes first? Notion of being first or notion of doing?
• Virtue ethics is lean on principles determining what is right, and deontology is lean on
habits and dispositions determining that we should do it in the here and now according
to our inclinations
o What makes a courage, a moral virtue, or benevolence a moral virtue?
o Aristotle – ethis is the eterprise that doest adit of asolute, it is aout
situation, no universal that we can draw on
o Deontology: not by suppressing inclinations – we want to be disposed of such
way, to make proper judgements in the right place at the right time, for the right
people
• Frankena: I propose that we regard the morality of duty and principles and the morality
of virtues or traits of character not as rival kinds of morality between which we must
choose, but as two complementary aspects of the same morality (318)
o These deficiencies in each account, if we combine them to one coherent
morality, we can offset the deficiencies and go forth that way
Knowing What & Knowing How
• Frankena: principles without traits are impotent and traits without principles are blind
o We cant have pure thought without imperial content
o Virtue and duty ethics must be combined
o Meaning: cultivating virtuous traits requires doing virtuous things, virtuous
things cannot simply be defined in the very same terms as the traits we will
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