PHI 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Virtue Ethics, Eudaimonia, Consequentialism
17 Nov 2017
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Document Summary
Both consequentialist and nonconsequentialist moral theories are concerned with action and attempt to answer the question, what should i do? . Virtue ethics is a theory of morality that makes virtue the central concern. Virtue ethics attempts to answer the question, what should i be? . Almost all modern virtue ethics traces its roots back to aristotle. His ethics consists, not in following moral rules that stipulate right actions, but in striving to be a particular kind of person. For aristotle, every living thing has an end toward which it naturally aims, the thing that represents its greatest good. The greatest good for humans their true goal is eudaimonia, which means. To achieve eudaimonia, human beings must fulfill the function that is natural and distinctive to them: living fully in accordance with reason. The life of reason entails a life of virtue because the virtues themselves are rational modes of being.
